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microfiches 
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Canadian  Inttituta  for  Historical  Microroproduetions  /  Institut  Canadian  da  microraproductions  historiquas 


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Ca  documant  aat  fitm4  au  taux  da  reduction  indiqu4  cl-datioua. 


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Th«  copy  filmed  h«r«  hu  tM«n  raproducsd  thanks 
to  iha  e«n«rosity  of: 

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L'cxamplaira  filmi  fut  rapreduit  grica  A  la 
ginirosit*  da: 

Bibliotheque  nationala  du  Canada 


Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  baat  quality 
posaibia  conaidaring  tha  condition  and  tagibility 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spacif icationa. 


Original  copiaa  in  printad  papar  covora  mtm  filmad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  illustratad  impraa- 
sion.  or  tha  back  eowar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  filmad  baginning  on  tha 
firat  paga  with  a  printad  or  llluatratad  impras- 
sion.  and  anding  on  tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad 
or  illuatratad  imprasaion. 


Tha  laat  racordad  frama  on  aach  microfiche 
shall  contain  tha  symbol  -•'  (moaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  tha  symbol  V  (moaning  "END"). 
whichavar  appliaa. 

Maps,  plataa.  charu.  ate,  may  ba  filmad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratios.  Thosa  too  larga  to  ba 
antiraiy  included  in  ona  axposura  ara  filmad 
baginning  in  tha  uppar  laft  hand  cornar.  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bonom,  as  many  frames  aa 
raouired.  The  following  diagrama  illustrate  the 
method: 


Las  images  suivantea  ont  Ati  raproduites  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin.  compta  tenu  de  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattet*  da  rexempiaira  filmi,  et  en 
conf  ormiti  avac  lea  conditiona  du  contrat  da 
filmaga. 

Lea  aaemplairea  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  eat  imprimOa  sent  filmOs  an  commancant 
par  la  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
darniire  page  qui  comporte  une  ampreinte 
d'impreaaion  ou  d'illustration.  soit  par  la  second 
plot,  selon  le  caa.  Toua  lea  autres  axemplairas 
originaux  sent  filmOs  an  commancant  par  la 
premiOre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impreaaion  ou  d'illuatration  et  en  tarminant  par 
la  dorniiro  page  qui  comporte  una  telle 
ampratnto. 

Un  daa  symboios  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
darniire  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  la  symbola  -^  signifia  "A  SUIVRE",  la 
symbole  ▼  signifio  "FIN". 

Les  cartas,  planches,  tableaux,  etc..  peuvent  etra 
f ilmte  A  daa  taux  da  reduction  diffOrents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  itra 
reproduit  en  un  soul  ciichO.  il  est  film*  *  partir 
de  I'angle  supdrieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  droite. 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  an  pranant  la  nombra 
d'imegea  ndcaaaaire.  Lea  diagrammee  suivants 
illustrent  la  mOthodo. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

MICROCOrV   RISOIUTION   TIST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


•APPLIED  IM/1GE    Inc 

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RochMter    Nfw  York         14609       USA 

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!-ic 


4^2. 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE 
AVERAGE  MAN 


I 


•y'^yi^ 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA  ■    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  ■    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE   OUTLOOK   FOR   THE 
AVERAGE    MAN 


BT 
ALBERT  SHAW 

AUTHOR  OF   "POLITICAL   PROBLEMS  OF 
AMERICAN   DEVELOPMENT,"   ETC. 


5 
-I 


IStia  gotit 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1907 

All  rights  reserved 


HC 


lOS 


146541 


COPTltOHT,  1907, 

Bt  the  macmillan  company. 

Set  up  and  electrotyi/«d.    Published  November,  1907. 


NattoooB  VrtM 

J.  8.  Cunhlng  Oil.  —  Berwick  A  Sniltb  Co. 

Norwood,  Mms.,  I'.ti.A. 


PREFACE 


The  five  chapters  of  this  volume  consist  of 
material  originally  made  use  of  in  public  ad- 
dresses to  young  men.  The  first  was  delivered 
to  the  students  of  the  University  of  Chicago  as  a 
Convocation  address.  The  second  and  third, 
respectively,  were  prepared  as  commencement 
addresses  for  Vanderbilt  University,  Nashville, 
Tennessee,  and  Trinity  College,  Durham,  North 
Carolina.  The  fourth  was  the  opening  discourse 
upon  the  Weinstock  Foundation  in  the  University 
of  California,  and  the  fifth  was  presented  at  the 
University  of  Virginia,  on  occasion  of  the  re- 
establishment  of  "Founder's  Day,"  this  being 
observed  on  Thomas  Jefferson's  birthday. 

The  addresses  were  written  with  some  refer- 
ence to  their  subsequent  publication  in  the  present 
form,  and  they  bear  a  certain  relation  to  one 
another,  though  each  is  complete  in  itself.  Thoy 
have  to  do  rather  with  the  relation  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  present  swial,  economic,  and  political 

V 


PREFACE 

conditions  in  the  United  States  than  to  those 
conditions  themselves.  The  reader  will  not  fail 
to  discover  certain  repetitions ;  but  it  has  seemed 
better  not  to  omit  views  and  statements  that 
belong  properly  in  their  particular  places  in  a 
given  chapter,  merely  because  similar  views  or 
statemv^nts  are  to  be  found  in  another  chapter. 

ALBERT  SHAW. 
Nbw  York,  November,  1907. 


CONTENTS 

CRAFTBB  PAO« 

I.     The  Average  Man   under   Changing 

Economic  Conditions       ...         1 

II.     Present  Economic  Problems  .       47 

III.  Our     Legacy    from     a    Century    of 

Pioneers .93 

IV.  The   Business   Career  and  the  Com- 

munity      ......     135 

V.     Jefferson's    Doctrines     under    New 

Tests 185 


vll 


THE  AVERAGE  MAN  UNDER 
CHANGING  ECONOMIC   CONDITIONS 


TEE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVEEAGE 

MAN 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   AVERAGE  MAN    UNDER  CHANG- 
ING ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 

What   of  the    position  and    prospects  of  the  Economic 
average  young  man  in  the  face  of  vast  current  ^  '*"''*'  "" 
and  impending  changes  in  economic  and  industrial  individual 
society?    Certainly,  I  shall  not  hope  to  exhaust 
a  question  of  such  varied  aspect  and  such  profound 
importance.     I  shall  be  satisfied  if  I  may  make 
some  suggestions  and  observations  that  may  prove 
in  the  least  degree  useful  to  some  young  men  in 
their  thinking  upon  general  problems,  or  in  their 
dealing  with  more  personal  or  individual  phases 
of  the  economic  and  social  question  —  for  it  is 
obvious  that  there  are  prevalent  just  now  two  kinds 
of  interest  and  anxiety  in  view  of  the  enormous 
transitions  that  are  taking  place  about  us. 
B  1 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


I  'I 


CHAP.  I. 


1.  On  the  part  of  many  young  men  who  feel 
A  period  of  that  they  have  their  own  way  to  make  in  the 
landmarks    ^°^^^'  ^^^  natural  optimism  of  youth  is  tempered 

by  a  considerable  anxiety  by  reason  of  the  disap- 
pearance of  traditional  landmarks.  They  find 
that  new  meanings  must  be  written  into  such 
terms  as  "  success  "  and  "  getting  on  in  the 
world."  A  more  acute  anxiety,  relieved  by  far 
less  of  personal  hope  or  general  optimism,  is  that 
of  older  men  of  fixed  habits  and  diminished 
adaptability,  who  find  themselves  the  victims  of 
displacement  as  new  methods  of  work  and  of 
organization  ruthlessly  supersede  old  methods. 

2.  Quite  a  different  sort  of  anxiety  is  that 
which  has  a  somewhat  disinterested  or  philosophi- 
cal basis,  and  concerns  itself  not  so  much  with  the 
question,  "How  shall  these  things  affect  me,  my 
fortunes,  my  future?"  as  with  the  questions, 
"How  is  the  community  to  be  affected?"  and 
"Are  these  new  tendencies  making  in  the  general 
sense  for  human  emancipation  and  equaUty  on 
an  ever  higher  plane,  or  are  they  making  for  a 
new  and  unpleasant  kind  of  social  and  economic 
imperialism,  in  which  the  few  shall  be  pluto- 
cratic masters  and  the  many  industrial  sub- 
jects?" 


The  larger 

social 

question 


i 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


CHAP.  I. 


I  shall  not  try  to  take  these  questions  ponder- 
ously or  elaborately,  and  I  shall  be  indined,  quite 
against  my  usual  habit  of  mind,  to  give  somewhat 
more  attention  to  individual  and  personal  aspects,  The 
and  rather  less  to  economic  generalization.  The  P*''*^" 
clean-cut  theory,  the  scientific  formula,  the  beau- 
tiful presentation  of  the  law  of  averages  —  all 
these  bring  only  cold  comfort  to  the  individual 
young  man  who  is  seeking  specific  solutions  for 
his  own  problems. 

If  there  were  grounds  for  trepidation  twenty 
or  twenty-five  years  ago  as  men  peered  over  the 
college  wall,  there  were  not  so  many  notes  of  alarm 
sounded  to  affright  the  student  as  he  is  likely  to 
hear  in  these  days.  The  paragrapher's  jokes 
about  the  college  graduate,  of  course,  have  always 
been  with  us;  but  we  did  not  hear  so  much 
twenty  years  ago  about  the  overcrowding  of  the 
professions  and  the  narrowed  range  of  independent 
opportunity  in  the  business  world. 

Let  me  say  at  once,  to  relieve  suspense,  and  not  No  shrink- 
to  carry  any  needless  air  of  gloom,  that  I  for  one  '^^  "•' 

"^  opportunity 

do  not  beUeve  in  the  least  that  there  is  any  real 
shrinkage  of  opportunity  in  Hfe  for  the  worthy 
young  man,  or  that  the  new  conditions  really 
threaten  the  prospects  of  the  individual. 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


^  -I 


! 

! 

f 

i 


Trained 
capacity 
the  beat 
asset 


Training, 
vnth  or 
vnthout 
college 


There  are,  however,  certain  principles  that  have 
new  force  in  these  altered  times  and  that  cannot  be 
stated  with  too  much  emphasis.  One  of  these 
principles  is  that  the  best  possible  investment  any 
young  man  can  make  is  in  himself ;  that  is  to  say, 
in  his  own  training  and  development  for  useful  and 
eflFective  work  in  the  world.  The  thing  in  general 
to  be  attained  i-.  power.  The  thing  in  particular 
is  the  special  training  of  some  kind  that  enables 
a  man  to  make  expert  application  of  his  developed 
force  and  ability.  If  trained  capacity  has  been  a 
valuable  asset  in  the  past,  it  becomes  the  one  in- 
dispensable asset  under  the  new  conditions. 

I  shall  not  here  broach  directly  the  question 
whether  or  not  it  is  worth  while  for  the  average 
young  man  to  go  to  college.  My  observation  has 
taught  me  not  to  draw  too  sharp  a  Une  in  busi- 
ness or  commercial  life  between  men  who  have 
had  a  preliminary  college  training  and  those  who 
have  not.  It  is  useless  to  lay  down  rules.  Op- 
portunities nowadays  are  so  numerous  and  varied 
that  the  young  man  of  health  and  determination 
may  reasonably  hope  to  make  his  way  in  the  world 
without  regard  to  any  beaten  path.  But  in  one 
way  or  another  he  must  become  educated  and 
trained  for  efficiency. 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


CHAP.  I. 


I  have  in  mind  an  illustration  of  this  principle 
that  the  modern  young  man  should  count  invest- 
ment in  himself,  the  acquisition  of  trained  capac-  A  concrete 
ity,  as  his  one  safeguard,  his  indispensable  asset.  ^•'"'""P'* 
Two  brothers  were  left  orphans  at  seventeen  or 
eighteen  years  of  age,  each  with  a  small  patrimony 
of  perhaps  ten  thousand  dollars.  One  brother 
was  regarded  as  possessing  a  high  sense  of  pru- 
dence. He  was  determined  under  no  circum- 
stances to  impair  the  principal  of  his  patrimony, 
and  gradually  he  subordinated  himself  to  the 
conserving  of  his  petty  inheritance.  He  was 
afraid  to  embark  in  active  business  because  he 
had  read  that  ninety-five  or  ninety-nine  per  cent 
of  all  business  men  and  business  ventures  meet 
with  failure.  If  he  had  placed  his  capital  at  the 
service  of  his  business  energies,  it  is  quite  true 
that  he  might  soon  have  impaired  it  or  lost  it 
altogether;  but  in  that  process  he  would  have 
gained  his  experience.  And  for  any  young  busi-  Experience 
ness   man  who  has   perseverance  and   force  of  '"''"«'''« 

1  ,  .  .  ,  ot  any 

character,  experience  is  a  good  investment  at  any  pecuniary 
pecuniary   sacrifice  —  for,   sooner   or   later,   the  '^<'®' 
business  experience  must  be  had,  it  being  a  neces- 
sary endowment  for  ultimate  success  in  affairs; 
and  if  the  experience  can  be  had  young,  like 


i 


6 


n 


,'■1 


w 


CHAP.  I. 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

measles  or  other  maladies  of  immaturity,  it  does 

not  come  so  hard. 

But  the  young  man  to  whom  I  refer  could  not 

bring  himself  to  risk  his  capital  on  the  perilous 

billows  of  trade  or  commerce,  and  much  less  could 

he  bring  himself  to  the  point  of  doing  the  next 

The  old-       best  thing,  which  would  have  been  to  use  it  up  in 

time  .         ..  .     ,    . 

rule  of         ^^^  expense  or  even  m  self-indulgence.     He  still 

parsimony  exists,  no  longer  so  young.  He  has  become  a 
model  of  economy,  and  he  has  been  adding  some- 
thing to  his  capital  by  saving  a  part  of  the  interest; 
but  he  is  disturbed  and  distressed  by  the  fact 
that  interest  rates  tend  to  decline  and  by  the 
general  insecurity  of  so-called  "  safe  investments." 
As  I  have  watched  this  man  I  have  satisfied 
myself  that  he  is  just  on  the  eve  of  doing  one  or 
the  other  of  two  things.  With  his  now  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  he  will  either  buy  United  States 
Its  government  two  per  cent  bonds  at  a  premium, 

results  °^  '"  which  case  he  will  settle  down  for  hfe  with  an 
income  of  less  than  three  hundred  dollars  a  year, 
or  else  he  will  violently  react,  throw  prudence  to 
the  winds,  and  —  in  the  parlance  of  the  day  — 
buy  a  "  gold  brick."  If  he  were  much  past  middle 
age,  we  should  be  sorry  for  him  if  he  did  not  buy 
the  government  bonds.     But  since  he  is  still  com- 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  7 

paratively  young,  the  gold  brick  would  be  really       chap.  i. 
his  only  means  of  salvation;  for,  having  lost  his 
money,  he  would  have  to  take  some  stock  in  him- 
self and  learn  somehow  to  make  a  practical  use 
of  his  own  energies. 

The  other  young  man  had  a  different  instinct 
altogether.     It  was  not,  perhaps,  that  he  had  fully 
reasoned  it  out,  but  he  had  by  nature  a  higher 
spirit,  a  little  more  faith  in  this  world  and  in  the  ^f^^  ^^_ 
universe  at  large,  and  altogether  a  better  percep-  vested  in 
tion  of  the  meaning  of  Ufe.     He  aspired  to  do 
things,  but  even  more,  he  longed  to  know  and  to 
be.    The  sole  use  of  his  liti'    patrimony  seemed  to 
him  to  be  the  launching  of  a  man.     He  believed 
in  education  and  he  was  willing  to  invest  in  him- 
self.   This  particular  young  man  had  at  once  a 
st  ong  taste  for  the  natural  sciences  and  a  sym- 
pathetic t-nd  humanitarian  turn  of  mind.     He 
went  to  colkge,  threw  himself  with  enthusiasm 
into  his  work,  determined  toward  the  end  of  his  His 
college  course  to  study  medicine,  and  also  resolved  prepara- 
to  use  what  remained  of  his  money  without  stint  <'""  for 
in  fitting  himself  by  study  and  research  at  home 
and  abroad  for  the  higher  walks  of  his  profes- 
sion. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  his  early  struggles  or 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


Ml 

If 


CHAP.  I.  diflBculties  in  getting  himself  established  in  prac- 
tice. I  merely  wish  to  note  the  fact  that  he  had 
gained  the  Ufelong  friendships  and  associations 
of  college  life.  He  had  made  his  own  those 
priceless  mental  resources  that  are  acquired  by 

Incidental    study,  travel,  and  foreign  residence,  where  a  high 

rewards  i  •         • 

and  gains     object  is  ever  in  control  of  conduct  and  the  use 

of  time.  And  he  had  cstabUshed  the  habitual 
currents  of  thought  that  are  engendered  by  enthu- 
siastic devotion  to  work  in  fields  of  science  where 
new  treasures  may  always  be  found  by  diligent 
and  well-directed  search.  In  the  very  process  of 
training  for  his  life  work  he  had  found  unexpected 
safeguards  and  compensations.  The  financial  side 
of  the  matter  is  of  less  importance,  though  I  may 
add  that  or  professional  brother,  who  did  not 
make  money  his  chief  aim  and  object,  was  never- 
theless in  due  time  earning  twice  as  much  money 
even'  week  as  the  prudent  one  could  get  in  a 
whole  year  by  clipping  the  coupons  from  his 
government  bonds. 

This  fragment  of  biography  —  or  this  parable, 
if  you  please  —  leads  on  to  several  other  con- 
siderations that  I  should  like  to  present.  One 
of  these  is  that,  generally  sjK'aking,  it  is  fortunate 
for  a  man  if  he  can  choose  a  pursuit  in  life  in 


The 

financial 
aspects 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


9 


which  the  pecuniary  returns  come  as  an  indirect       chap.  i. 

rather  than  a  direct  result  of  his  efforts.     It  was  m   j, 

my  pleasure  some  time  ago  to  pubUsh  an  article  where 

written  for  me  by  Mr.  Hezekiah  Butterworth,  en-   T"*?^" 

jor  Us 

titled  "  The  Old  Age  of  New  England  Authors."  orvn  sake 
Mr.  Butterworth  pointed  out  the  remarkably 
long  period  through  which  New  England  writers 
have  on  the  average  been  enabled  to  continue 
their  useful  and  valuable  labors,  and  he  attributed 
this  largely  to  the  fact  that  cheerfulness  and 
serenity  promote  long  life  and  the  retention  of  the 
mental  powers  and  faculties  in  old  age.  And 
all  this  is  undoubtedly  true. 

But  it  was  also  true  in  a  very  important  sense  Afoneu 
that  this  class  of  workers  owed  much  of  that  «» «" 
cheerfulness  of  spirit  to  the  fact  that  the  day's  odtc/*^' 
work  did   not  take  them   into  the   competitive 
struggle  and  clash  of  the  market-place,  nor  compel 
them  to  give  much  anxious  thought  for  the  morrow. 
It  is  not  that  one  should  aspire  to  mere  quiet  or 
aloofness,  in  order  to  cultivate  serenity  and  live 
to  be  ninety  years  old.     My  jxiint  simply  is  that 
there  are  great  compensations  in  any  kind  of  active 
life,  however  intense  and  severe  its  labors  may 
be,  if  only  the  work  itself  absorb  the  mind,  and 
the  pay  come  as  a  secondary  consideration. 


10 


rt 


i  ! 


CHAP.  I. 


Benefits 
of  the 
profes- 
sional 
spirit 


Callings 
thai  are 
now  profes- 
sionalized 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

My  friend,  a  physician,  striving  to  save  the  life 
of  a  little  child,  lost  much  sleep,  and  labored 
incessantly;  but  I  do  not  suppose  that  he  gave 
the  smallest  fraction  of  one  minute  to  a  thought 
about  the  amount  of  his  fee.  Now  an  equal 
amount  of  effort,  strain,  and  loss  of  sleep  expended 
upon  a  money-making  transaction,  w^ith  nothing 
in  mind  except  the  dollars  to  be  gained,  would 
have  a  wholly  different  result,  both  immediate 
and  permanen  .  It  would  break  a  man  down, 
and  that  ingloriously. 

Clergj'men,  professors,  lawyers  of  the  better 
class,  physicians,  engineers,  architects,  and  even 
journalists  and  newspaper  men  who  do  work  of 
a  professional  grade  —  all  persons,  moreover, 
engaged  worthily  and  usefully  in  any  sphere  of 
education,  philanthropy,  or  public  scr\'ice,  —  and 
in  the  term  "  public  service  "  I  include  not  only 
the  non-official  classes,  but  also  the  better  class  of 
civil  servants  and  also  the  army  and  navy, — the 
people  who  choose  to  spend  their  Uvcs  in  these  and 
kindred  callings  may  be  said  to  form  the  advance 
giiards  of  the  s.'K'iaI  onler  that  !s  yet  to  be. 

Takinj;  them  on  the  average  tiicy  have  neither 
wealth  nor  poverty,  and  tljcy  give  their  best 
efforts  to  kinds  of  work  which  are  satisfactory  in 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


11 


themselves.  Such  kinds  of  work  to  a  very  large 
extent  have  attached  to  them  fixed  or  customary 
liveUhoods  that  come  of  themselves  where  intelli- 
gent and  faithful  service  is  rendered  to  the  com- 
munity. I  am  confident  that  the  tendency  in 
many  other  fields  of  endeavor  will  be  toward 
some  such  non-competitive  and  permanent  stand- 
ards of  income,  with  comparative  fixity  of  tenure, 
and  opportunity  to  render  devotion  to  the  work 
for  •'  i  own  sake. 

Certainly  I  hope  that  the  young  men  in  our 
colleges  will  be  Utopian  enough  to  believe  in  a  fu- 
ture state  of  economic  society  in  which  each  man 
wiii  be  more  free  than  now  to  render  service 
to  the  community  according  to  his  special  al)i]ities, 
while  in  return  the  supply  to  all  useful  workers  of 
their  ordinary  needs  will  become  more  and  more 
a  matter  of  easy  assurance,  and  therefore  much 
more  in  the  background  than  now.  But  even 
with  our  present  organization  of  economic  society, 
the  young  man  will  find  many  compensations 
and  many  advanta^'es  —  other  things  being  equal 
—  in  the  choice  of  a  pursuit  in  life  which  interests 
and  satisfies  in  itself  while  yielding  its  pecuniary 
rewards  indirectly. 

Let  me  refer  again  to  the  question  of  the  rela- 


CHAP.  I. 

The 

tendency 
towards 
non-com- 
petitive 
pursuits 


A  hopeful 
and 

desirable 
prospect 


i 


12 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


ii( 


II 


li 


li 


CHAP.  I. 


The 

warnings 
against 
■mas.fcd 
capital 


Is  the 

poor  man 

without 

chanced 


!• 


tive  value  in  this  transitional  period  of  the  well- 
equipped,  highly-trained  man;  for  we  have  been 
so  gravely  and  so  incessantly  warned  about  the 
crushing  out  of  opportunities  for  young  men 
through  the  growth  of  capitalistic  combinations, 
that  many  of  us  find  it  hard  to  beUeve  that  we 
are  not  in  some  danger  of  being  folded,  stifled, 
and  crushed  within  the  tentacles  of  the  octopus. 
We  have  been  told  that  the  whole  present  tend- 
ency is  one  that  endangers  not  only  the  position 
of  the  workingman, — that  is  to  say,  the  man  who 
labors  with  his  hands,  whether  skilled  or  unskilled, 
—  but  also  interposes  obstacles  to  the  independ- 
ence and  prosperity  of  merit,  education,  and  high 
training.  For  the  young  man  who  is  not  lucky 
enough  to  inherit  a  fortune,  or  to  have  influence 
and  favor  that  gild  his  prospects,  it  is  said  that 
the  world  offers  a  poor  and  ever-diminishing  op- 
portunity for  earning  a  livelihood  and  achieving 
success;  in  short,  that  the  situation  grows  rapidly 
worse,  and  that  the  clouds  on  the  horizon  are 
much  darker  than  those  overhead. 

Now  it  is  true  that  we  are  moving  fast  in  the 
most  acutely  transitional  period  of  the  world's 
economic  history.  A  powerful  financier  remarked 
to  me  tlu'  (»tli<T  «l<iv  tbat  wc  had  lived  a  thousand 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


13 


years  since  the  Sherman  anti  ^rust  law  was  en- 
acted in  1890.     The  production  of  wealth  is  on  a 
prodigious  scale,  and  its  private  accumulation, 
which  has  already  in  a  number  of  instances  given 
us  the  man  who  is  a  millionaire  a  hundred  times 
over,  is  pointing  to  the  possibility  of  the  biUionaire 
—  the  man  with  a  thousand  millions,  —  as  no  soli- 
tary phenomenon  not  very  many  years  hence.    But 
the  man  of  many  millions  is  the  incident,  or  by- 
product;   he  is  not  the  fundamental  cause,  nor 
is  he  the  chief  or  final  result  of  the  modern  pro- 
duction of  wealth.     His   status  does   not   much 
affect  the  economic  position  of  the  average  man. 
Two  things   have   brought   about   this   recent 
wonderful  outburst  of  economic  production.     One 
is  the  growth  of  human  knowledge  as  respects  the 
laws  and  powers  of  nature,  resulting  in  practical 
achievements  of   science  and   invention.     Many 
of  the   men  representing  this  g.cat  force  were 
brought  together  on  a  .social  occasion  .some  time 
ago  in  New  York.     A  nimiber  of  these  were  men 
with  whose  names,  even,  mo.st  of  us  had  not  been 
famihar,   yet   they   had    made    astounding    and 
revolutionary   applications   of   .science   to   useful 
r.oduction  in  mechanical  or  electrical  or  metal- 
lurgical fields,  or  else  through  great  talents  in 


CHAP.  I. 

Wealth 
and  its 
accumula- 
tion 


The 
multi- 
millionaire 
is  a  mere 
by-product 


Science 
the  first 
source  of 
wealth 


■n  I 


I 


14 


!  t 


:  f 


''HAP.  I. 


Coopera- 
tion 
another 
wealth 
agency 


The  new 
ideas 
mizst  be 
adopted 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

organization,  and  in  the  use  of  improved  agencies, 
had  become  the  masters  of  one  or  another  of  the 
great  lines  of  industry  or  manufacture.  These, 
rather  than  soldiers  or  politicians,  are  the  typical 
leaders,  the  "  Plutarch's  men  "  of  our  new  era. 

The  second  of  the  two  agencies  or  forces  that 
have  brought  about  this  great  outburst  of  economic 
production  has  been  the  use  of  the  principle  of  co- 
operation. It  gives  us  great  associations  of  capital 
and  of  labor,  limiting  more  and  more  the  waste- 
fulness and  meager  results  of  competition  on  the 
small  scale,  working  out  production  on  the  large 
scale.  It  employs  every  conceivable  mechanical 
device  to  heighten  the  productivity  of  labor,  — 
unity,  harmony,  and  cooperation  being  the 
watchwords  all  along  the  Une. 

Now  these  two  things,  —  the  application  of 
science  and  the  use  of  the  principle  of  human 
cooperation,  —  characteristic  as  they  were  of 
the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  centi'*; ,  are 
going  to  be  still  more  characteristic  of  that  period 
in  the  twentieth  century  in  which  the  young 
men  who  are  living  to-day  must  do  their  work. 
They  must  be  prepared,  therefore,  to  accept 
the  new  ideas  and  adjust  themselves  to  the  new 
society. 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


15 


I 


Science,  invention,  skill,  special  training,  union       chap.  i. 
of    effort,    harmonious   cooperation  —  these   are 
to  be  the  keynotes,  certainly,  of  the  next  two  or 
three  decades.     Not  only  is  it  not  in  the  least 
true  that  money,  capital,  mere  dead  material  pos- 
sessions, are  getting  the  better  of  human  flesh 
and  blood,  and  that  mankind  is  coming  under  a  Human 
new  form  of  slavery,  but  exactly  the  opposite  is  *^'"^*'^^ 
true.     Capital  and  labor,  of  course,  must  con-  productive 

tinue  in  association  with  one  another,  but  of  the  """!   . 

capital 

two  it  is  labor  —  that  is  to  say,  human  service, 
where  it  shows  the  touch  of  efficiency  and  knowl- 
edge —  that  constantly  grows  relatively  stronger. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  training  and  skill 
in  the  individual  man  counted  for  so  much,  and 
when  mere  money,  apart  from  training  and  skill, 
counted  for  so  httle. 

When  money  could  earn  ten  per  cent  in  safe 
forms  of  investment,  the  man  with  fifty  thousand 
dollars  could  think  himself  quite  wealthy,  and 
perchance  go  through  Hfe  without  an  occupation. 
But  now,  when  the  standard  of  Hving  is  advanced 
so  much,  while  rates  of  interest  have  so  greatly 
declined,  the  same  sort  of  man  —  who  in  order 
to  keep  his  relative  position  needs  twice  his  old- 
time   income  —  finds    that    mere    capital    counts 


16 

CBAP.  I. 


Modern 

business 

depends 

upon 

talent  and 

skill 


Leadership 
in  develop- 
ment of 
wealth 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

for  less  and  less,  while  highly  skilled  personal 
services  count  for  more  and  more. 

Even  in  the  strict  world  of  finance  itself,  it  is 
scarcely  true  any  longer  that  money  breeds  money. 
For  special  skill,  trained  organizing  ability,  broad 
outlook,  and  the  highly  developed  personal 
faculties,  even  with  an  empty  pocket,  may  prove 
R  far  better  start  in  the  race  for  wealth  than  a 
million  dollars  without  those  qualifications.  It 
is  true  that  the  big  combination  has  united  and 
absorbed  many  little  enterprises,  but  the  big 
combination  absolutely  demands  for  its  success  a 
high  order  of  personal  service.  It  is  talent  and 
skill,  rather  than  the  dead  weight  of  united  capital, 
upon  which  the  g-eat  industrial  and  transportation 
systems  must  base  their  chief  hope  of  permanent 
success. 

Where  one  finds  such  enterprises  under  the 
active  direction  of  men  reputed  to  be  multi- 
millionaires, one  is  likely  to  discover  that  such 
men  are  no  drones,  but,  on  the  contrary,  are  men 
of  higher  personal  capacity  and  qualification  for 
leadership,  quite  irrespective  of  their  millions, 
than  other  men  who  could  be  found  to  take  their 
places. 

To  reiterate  it,  let  us  grasp  firmly  the  under- 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


17 


CHAP.  I. 


lying  principle  that  in  all  this  recent  evolution, 
at  so  rapid  a  rate,  of  business  and  economic  life, 
knowledge,  skill,  and  character  stand  as  the  best 
and  safest  assets,  and  that  they  count  for  more, 
both  presently  and  prospectively,  than  at  any 
previous  period. 

The  great  business  of  a  college  is  to  help  high- 
minded  and   progressive  youth  to  develop  into  The  new 
manhood  of  discipline,  capacity,  and  power.     And     r  ^^^^^^ 
that  being  the  case,  the  college  certainly  never  tion 
had  so  important  a  work  to  do  before  as  it  has  to 
do  to-day,  for  never  before  was  this  particular 
kind  of  training  so  relatively  advantageous,  and 
neve  before  was  it  so  needful  for  young  men  of  all 
degrees  of  fortune  to  be  prepared  to  do  a  man's 
work  in  the  world  on  the  highest  plane  of  their 
own  particular  capacity. 

I  am  aware  that  the  college  ana  the  university 

do  not,  from  their  traditional  standpoint  at  ieast,   Training 

,  „  »       ,         ,        1     "'f  whole 

aim  so  much  to  fit  young  men  for  bread-and-  ^^^ 

butter  pursuits ;  but  the  college  and  the  university 
do  stand,  not  merely  for  acquisition,  but  for  the 
high  training  of  the  whole  man  and  the  develop- 
ment of  power.  And  a  man  thus  trained  is  i.  t 
likely  to  prove  in  the  end  a  misfit  in  the  prac- 
tical world. 


I 


i! 


18 


CHAP.  I. 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


to  a 

particular 

calling 


It  is  true,  of  course,  that  the  problem  of  |)er- 
sonal  adjustment  is  a  difficult  one  for  a  great 
many  young  men.  Those  older  men  who  re- 
member their  own  perplexities  will  have  ample 
sympathy  for  the  college  junior  or  senior  who  is  a 
well-balanced  man  and  entirely  willing  to  do 
faithful  work  in  the  world,  but  is  not  conscious 
Adjustment  of  an  overpowering  call  to  enter  any  particular 
profession.  Some  young  men  decide  these  ques- 
tions on  broad  principles,  while  others  are  guided 
by  immediate  considerations.  I  have  never  be- 
lieved that  the  successful  choice  and  pursuit  of 
a  calling  should  be  thought  chiefly  a  matter  of 
affinity.  Rather  ar^  I  inclined  to  think  it  all  a 
matter  of  character;  that  is  to  say,  of  steadfast- 
ness, whole-hearted ness,  and  concentration.  Not 
only  is  all  good  work  honorable,  but  it  can  be 
made  sufficiently  interesting. 

In  some  directions,  of  course,  one  must  give 
a  little  heed  to  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 
Thus  it  would  hardly  pay  for  five  hundred  young 
men  to  rush  violently  into  preparation  for  pro- 
fessorships of  Sanskrit  or  anthropology;  but 
even  such  miscalculations  of  the  market  need  not 
be  fatal,  for  readjustment  is  neither  impossible 
nor  disgraceful.     Thus  the  anthropologist  out  of 


Certain 
cases  of 
misfit 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


19 


a  job  may  in  due  time  make  fame  and  fortune  as  chap,  i, 
a  criminal  lawyer;  and  the  Sanskrit  man  might 
have  developed  gifts  that  would  fit  him  for  a 
high  place  of  service  in  the  Philippine  Islands  if 
he  did  not  feel  inclined  to  go  to  India  as  a  mis- 
sionary. 

There  is  not  much  reason  to  be  afraid  that 
honest  effort  at  training  one's  self  for  work  in  the  Final 

world   may  prove  to  have  been   misapplied.     I  "'''''^  "-^ 

^•^  unlucky 

have  often  heard  men  of  widely  varied  and  more  ventures 

or  less  unlucky  experiences  say  that  in  the  end  all 
their  previous  studies,  efforts,  and  ventures  had 
seemed  to  bear  exactly  upon  the  particular  task 
to  which  they  finally  settled  down  with  success 
and  contentment;  so  that,  in  the  retrospect,  a 
consistent  purpose  appeared  to  run  through  all 
til  "r  earlier  career,  giving  unity  and  cumulative 
effect  and  value  to  what  had  once  seemed  frag- 
mentary, unrelated,  and  quite  unfortunate  efforts. 
Two  things  are  quite  certain  under  the  new 
social  and  economic  order:  first,  that  there  is  to  Double 
be  a  widening  field  of  productive  activity  for  the  [•^^rT"^'"^ 
man  of  liberal  attainments,  and  second,  that  there  cuUure 
is  to  be  a  vastly  improved  environment  of  oppor- 
tunity for  the  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  Hberal 
attainments,  quite  apart  from  their  usefulness  in 


20 


CHAP.  I. 


What  the 
college 
should  do 
for  the 
man 


Mental 
habits 
rather 
than  in- 
formation 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

any  direct  sphere  of  productive  employment. 
Both  of  these  reasons  seem  to  me  to  justify  abun- 
dantly almost  any  effort  and  sacrifice  that  a  young 
man  might  make  to  improve  his  mind  by  courses 
of  study,  and  to  obtain  college  and  university 
training  if  he  should  feel  himself  drawn  in  *hat 
direction. 

In  college  one  ought  to  acquire  the  habit  of 
seeking  the  truth  and  liking  it  for  its  own  sake 
in  a  disinterested  way.  One's  logical  faculties 
ought  to  get  good  training  in  order  that  fallacious 
reasoning  may  easily  be  analyzed  and  disposed 
of.  Scientific  study  should  have  as  its  great 
object  the  training  of  th"  powers  of  exact  obser- 
vation and  of  accurate  analysis ;  and  from  begin- 
ning to  end  a  college  course  should  train  the  stu- 
dent in  the  correct  and  exact  use  of  iiie  i.'?  giish 
language.  As  to  special  departments  of  knowl- 
edge, —  such  as  history,  political  economy,  htera- 
ture,  ethics,  and  psychology,  —  certainly  it  is 
important  that  the  student  should  acquire  and 
retain  as  large  a  fund  of  information  as  he  con- 
veniently can ;  but  it  is  still  more  important  that 
he  should  get  his  intellectual  bearings,  acquire 
certain  methods  and  habits  of  thinking,  verify  cer- 
tain standards  and  principles,  and  learn  how  to 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


21 


apply  sound  generalizations  to  current  and  pass-       chap.  i. 
ing  phenomena. 

The  important  thing  is  clearness,  r/hich  means 
exact  thinking,  and  next  in  importance  is  a  certain  Adapta- 

sympathetic  aptitude  in  more  than  one  direction.  ^f[^ 

'   of  the 

together  with  some  degree  of  capacity  for  enthu-  trained 

siasm;    that  is  to  say,   some   optimism,   either  '"*"'' 

temperamental  or  acquired.     Men  whose  general 

training  has  done  so  much  for  them  can  adapt 

themselves    pretty    readily    to    special    callings, 

learning  the  technique  of  almost  any  profession 

or  industry,  and  earning  a  decent  hvelihood  while 

possessing  the  capacity  for  a  rational  use  and 

enjoyment  of  life. 

When  it  comes  to  the  choice  of  a  profession  or 

calling,  the  individual  will  be  guided  by  circum-  About 

stances  that  defy  all  attempts  to  reduce  the  thine  ^''T'"^  " 

"    projession 
to  rules  or  principles.     It  is  a  mistake  to  disparage 

any  established  profession.  Thus,  it  is  honorable 
to  assist  in  the  administration  of  justice,  in  the 
making  of  laws,  and  in  their  appHcation  to  the 
various  relationships  of  society.  The  legal  pro- 
fession must  therefore  always  have  its  useful  and 
prominent  place.  With  the  harmonizing  and 
unifying  of  business  relationships,  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  cooperative  for  the   competitive 


( < 


i'  % 


22 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


I , 


i:  If 


i  I 


CHAP.  I. 

The 

lawyer's 

calling 


The  large 
legal  firms 


City  and 

country 

lawyers 


principle,  it  is  obvious  that  litigation  is  affected; 
and  in  some  spheres  it  is,  fortunately,  much  re- 
duced. All  this  will  have  its  effect  upon  the  fv.ture 
of  the  lawyer's  calling.  To  care  for  the  legal 
business  of  some  individual  corporations  nowa- 
days requires  a  great  number  of  trained  lawyers. 
In  some  New  York  law  offices,  as  in  other 
American  cities,  one  finds  thirty  or  forty,  or  even 
seventy-five  or  a  hundred  fully  trained  members 
of  the  legal  profession,  —  excellent  lawyers,  of 
whom  one  never  hears,  —  most  of  them  college 
graduates ;  a  few,  perha{)s,  sharing  in  the  profits 
of  the  firm  and  ranking  as  partners,  but  most 
of  them  employe!  at  moderate  salaries  and  work- 
ing as  law  clerks. 

It  happens  to  please  these  men  letter  to  have 
their  assured  sa'aries  and  live  their  lives  in  a  great 
metro'K)Uian  center  with  opportunities  to  indulge 
their  cultivated  private  tastes  —  to  see  picture^,  to 
hear  music,  to  meet  their  friends  at  the  club  — 
than  to  scatter  into  smaller  cities  and  towns,  hang 
out  their  shingles  on  the  old-fashioned  plan,  and 
elbow  their  way  to  the  fn)nt  in  law  practice  and 
in  politics  as  persons  of  at  least  local  importance. 
For  my  part  I  should  probably  prefer  the  inde- 
pendent shingle  and  the  country  town;   but  tliis 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


23 


j 


is  a  matter  of  taste  not  to  be  disputed  about,  ind  chap.  i. 
the  point  I  wish  to  make  is  that  more  and  more 
the  members  of  the  legu'  y.r'r"s-.ion  are  doubt- 
less destined  to  associate  ()f.'<th«T  in  tliose  large 
groups  under  circumstanv.  •;  .Uiioh  affoid  a  {i;ood 
deal  of  stabihty  and  satisfaction. 

The  medical  profession  affords  most  inviting  Advance 

opportunities  because  of  its  rapid  progress  upon  <'/"'^ 

medical 
really  scientific  lines,  its  wonderful  further  oppor-  profession 

tunities  for  research,  its  rare  opportunities  for 
the  rendering  of  service  to  one's  fellow-men,  and 
above  all  its  growing  authority  and  its  changed 
position  as  respects  public  administration.  Now 
vhat  population  tends  to  become  urbanized,  and 
miUions  of  people  must  live  in  dose  pro.vimity  to 
one  another,  our  men  of  research  in  the  medical 
profession  have  been  making  a  series  of  most  provi- 
dential discoveries,  which  have  totally  changed 
all  the  conditions  of  life  and  have  quite  reversed 
our  whole  outlook  upon  the  future. 

It  is  to  the  men  of  this  noble  profession  that  Modem 

we  owe  that  greatest  of  all  modern  discoveries;  '".'''"'  . 
"  discoveries 

namely,  the  discovery  that  those  very  conditions 
of  life  which  fifty  or  seventy-five  years  ago  seemed 
destined  to  destroy  the  human  race  in  the  civilized 
countries   of   high    industrial   activity,   eoultl  be 


li 


If     I., 

ft 


24 


CHAP.  I. 


Scientific 
medicine 
has  traiif;- 
formcd  life 
in  cities 


Medicine 
becomes  a 
public 
calling 


'1 
i  i 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  x.AN 

turned  into  conditions  for  the  positive  improve- 
ment and  progress  of  the  race.  It  was  this  pro- 
fession that  developed  the  modern  science  of 
sanitary  administration;  worked  out  and  applied 
the  germ  theory  of  disease;  abolished  epidemics 
of  the  large  and  uncontrolled  sort  such  as  used 
to  ravage  all  great  towns  at  frequent  intervals; 
showed  us  the  relation  of  pure  water,  sufficient 
air  supply,  and  sunlight  to  the  health  of  the  com- 
munity; taught  us  to  inspect  food;  lowered  the 
rate  of  infant  mortality  by  guarding  the  milk 
supply  —  and,  in  short,  set  the  real  standards  for 
the  administration  of  municipal  government. 

More  and  more,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  the 
medical  profession  will  pass  over  from  the  sphere 
of  a  private  to  thai  of  a  public  calling.  It  will 
become  one  of  the  most  essential  of  the  protective 
services,  somewhat  as  Mie  private  watchman 
developed  into  the  public  police  organization; 
and  the  voluntary  fire  companies  grew  into  the 
great  paid  and  highly  organized  fire  departments 
that  we  see  to-day.  The  more  or  less  voluntary 
and  haphazard  hospital  facilities  have  tended  to 
become  .systematized  and  public  in  their  support 
and  character.  The  administration  of  relief  and 
charity  in  modern  countries  has  passed  over  in  the 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


25 


main  from  the  (private  and  voluntary  agencies  to 
the  sphere  of  a  necessary  and  thoroughly  organized 
public  function.  And  that  greatest  of  all  pro- 
tective services  —  the  education  and  training  of 
the  children  of  the  people  for  their  places  as 
citizens  of  the  state,  members  of  general  society, 
and  producers  in  the  economic  sense  —  has  in 
the  course  of  time  everywhere  come  to  be  recog- 
nized as  the  very  foremost  of  all  the  functions  of 
the  community  or  the  state. 

In  a  somewhat  similar  sense,  then,  we  may 
safely  predict  a  larger  and  larger  proportion  of 
the  men  trained  for  the  practice  of  medicine 
will  become  public  servants  — administering  sani- 
tary systems ;  looking  after  the  physical  develop- 
ment of  the  children  in  schools;  caring  for  the 
health  of  workmen  in  factories;  ministering  to  the 
sick  in  hospitals  and  institutions;  serving  special 
classes  like  railroad  men,  sailors,  or  students, 
and  specializing  for  the  general  care  of  the  com- 
munity in  a  way  analogous  to  that  of  the  official 
doctors  who  now  enforce  vaccination,  or  the 
United  States  marine  hospital  service.  I  had 
not  meant  to  say  so  much  about  the  futu'c  of  a 
particular  profession,  and  I  have  said  this  only 
as  illustrative  of  certain  tendencies  which  I  believe 


CHAP.  I. 

How 

private 

pursuits 

evolve 

into  public 

functions 


The  doctor 
ax  an 
official 
person 


ik 


4; 


■  I 

'I; 


■V 


f 

i 
,«    in 


'     it 


if       -w 


i 


!f! 


i  I 

i 


26 


CHAP.  I. 


Is  money 
an  indis- 
pensable 
motive  f 


The  power 
of  other 
incentives 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

will  affect  the  economic  status  of  workers  in  a 
good  many  callings. 

At  this  point  I  should  like  to  say  with  as  much 
stress  as  possible,  apropos  of  the  new  society 
that  is  to  be  evolved,  that  money-getting  under 
competitive  conditions  is  by  no  means  the  indis- 
pensable motive  power  that  impels  men  to  iheir 
best  activity.  And  there  is  reason  enough  to  think 
that  it  may  safely  be  allowed  a  less  important 
place.  That  is  to  say,  human  society  will  by  no 
means  stagnate  when  men  are  not  driven  to  make 
exertion  chiefly  through  fear  of  poverty. 

I  affirm,  without  the  slightest  doubt  or  hesita- 
tion, that  in  many  lines  of  activity  affecting  the 
community  at  large  it  is  possible  to  secure  as 
high  a  degree  of  efficiency  in  non-competitive 
and  public  service  as  in  service  under  the  spur 
of  competitive  struggle  and  personal  ambition. 
It  is  a  great  mistake  to  undervalue  men's  motives. 
Money  getting  is  only  one  of  many  springs  of 
human  action ;  and  for  my  part  I  have  long  since 
become  convinced  that  the  sense  of  public  respon- 
sibility brings  out  high  (pialities  in  men  that 
might  in  those  same  individuals  have  lain  dor- 
mant in  strictly  private  occupations. 

A  large  part  of  the  progress  of  our  times,  even 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


27 


in  the  fields  of  wealth  production,  has  been  due       <""ap.  i. 

to  research  and  study  by  men  who  were  actuated   Teaching 

not  in  the  least  degree  by  the  motive  of  gain.   ««  ^^e 

But  the  greatest  example  of  all  is  afforded  by  profession 

what  is  now  the  foremost  of  all  our  profession  , 

namely,    the    profession    of   teaching.     Here    we 

find    scores   of   thousands    of    men    and    women 

rendering    noble,    unselfish,    and    indispensable 

service  to  the  community  on  the  basis  of  fixed, 

moderate  stipends,  removed  almost  wholly  from 

the  competitive  sphere  of  activity,  and  inspired 

to  diligence  and  efficiency  in  their  work  by  a  sense 

of  duty  and  responsibility. 

To  them  it  belongs  in  this  new  period  to  train   A  puNic- 

the  rising  generation  to  right  views  of  life  Jind   "''"'y  "' 
,  ,  calhuij 

citizenship,  that  is  to  say,  to  develop  the  intelli- 
gent, coiiperative  man  of  the  future,  as  against 
the  competitive  man  of  the  past.  The  selfishness 
of  the  comjietitive  man  has  grown  principally 
out  of  fear,  and  his  sense  of  living  in  a  world 
whose  motto  was  "every  man  for  himself."  The 
work  at  hand  is  the  training  of  the  man  who  can 
afford  to  believe  that  what  helps  one  helps  all, 
and  that  universal  intelligence  means  universal 
emancipation. 

Right-minded  men  and  women,  therefore,  who 


w 
i 


•j' 


( 


1       .   ! 


i  ( 


28 


CHAP.  I. 


Room  in 
technical 
professions 


Salaried 
places  in 
business 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

fit  themselves  for  the  work  of  teaching,  and 
who  appreciate  its  relation  to  the  demands  of 
citizenship  in  an  economic  society,  may  well  feel 
content  in  the  thought  that  they  have  chosen  a 
noble  calling  in  which  they  can  serve  their  country 
and  their  generation  and  find  many  incidental 
rewards  and  compensations  as  they  go  along. 

As  for  other  professions  and  callings  —  such 
is  the  trend  of  our  industrial  life  that  it  would 
seem  likely  that  it  could  make  room  for  almost 
as  many  engineers,  electricians,  and  men  of 
technological  training  as  are  likely  to  present 
themselves.  In  the  higher  walks  of  what  is  com- 
monly called  business  —  banking,  mercantile  en- 
terprise, transportation,  general  manufacture,  and 
the  various  l)ranchcs  of  trade  and  commerce  — 
doubtless  a  greatly  increased  proportion  of  young 
men  must  expect  to  work  on  salaries  in  large 
organizations.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  men 
who  ire  engaged  in  the  business  of  railroading 
are  destined  to  be  just  as  well  off,  with  the 
amalgamation  of  the  vast  network  of  American 
railways  into  several  comprehensive  .systems 
under  united  control,  as  they  were  when,  not  .so 
many  years  ago,  we  had  a  vastly  larger  nun^ber  of 
separate  railway  companies,  each  with  its  com- 


;  » 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


29 


(  s 


i^ 


plement  of  officers,  engaged  a  part  of  the  time  in 
reckless  rate-cutting,  a  part  of  the  time  in  extorting 
high  rates  on  the  principle  of  "  all  the  traffic  would 
bear,"  and  the  rest  of  the  time  in  secret  rebating. 
The  newer  method  lends  to  make  railroading 
more  scientific,  gives  it  a  better  opportunity  to 
serve  the  traveling  and  producing  community, 
and  affords  a  more  attractive  calling  for  real 
merit  and  character. 

As  to  the  amalgamation  of  commercial  and 
industrial  enterprises,  the  rapidity  of  the  process 
has  doubtless  caused  a  great  deal  of  distress 
through  changed  methods  and  the  displacement 
of  men.  But  if  one  or  two  traveling  salesmen 
can  really  do  all  the  business  that  thirty  or  forty 
were  struggling  and  competing  for  under  the  old 
system,  the  community  as  a  whole  must  certainly 
reap  the  benefit  when  ihe  necessary  readjust- 
ments have  been  made ;  and  what  is  good  for  the 
community  as  a  whole  will  not  fail  to  be  i:  od 
also  for  most  of  the  individuals  concerned. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  the  intelligent  man  of 
the  future  is  also  to  find  a  great  outlet  for  his 
energies  in  the  old  and  dignified  calling  of  agri- 
culture. The  application  of  science  and  inven- 
tion to  the  business  of  farming  is  destined  to 


CHAP.  I. 


The  future 
for  rail- 
road men 


Temporary 

distress 
due  to 
ri  ailjust- 
ment 


Science 
in  the 
rrriral  nf 
farming 


I :-! 


If 


,  ( 


if  f ' 


id 


30 


CHAP.  I. 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


Better- 
ments of 
life  in  the 
country 


work  changes  which  we  are  only  beginning  to  sus- 
pect.    Scientific    agriculture    affords    a    field    of 
study  of  almost   infinite   variety,   and    promises 
safe,  if  not  glittering,  financial  returns.     Along 
with  the  complete  transformation  of  the  business 
of  farming  under  the  new  applications  of  science 
and   invention    is    destined   to   come   about  the 
rehabilitation  of  country  life  through  the  intelli- 
gent cultivation  of  cooperative  methods.    Greatly 
improved  highways,  the  electric  trolley  for  freight 
as  well  as  passengers,  the  substitution  to  some 
extent  of   motor  traction   for  horses  in  hauling 
and  farm  work,  the  extension  of  the  free  postal  de- 
Hvery,  the  universality  of  the  telephone,  the  central- 
ization and  great  improvement  of  schools  through 
the  facilities  offered  by  better  roads  and  through 
organized    methods    for    carrying    the    children 
back  and  forth,  the  multiplication  of  coiipcrative 
cheese   factories   and   creameries,    and   common 
action  in  various  other  directions  having  to  do 
with  purchase  and  sale,  the  performance  of  heavy 
work  by  machinery,  and  the  utilization  of  raw 
Methofis  of  products    by    the    establishment    of    additional 
primary  industries  analogous  to  the  butter  and 
cheese  factories,  the   multiplication  of  traveling 
libraries  and  the  improvement  of  social  facilities  — 


rural 
progress 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


31 


■ 


■ 


1 


in  all  these  and  various  other 

can  and  will  be  greatly  revived ;  and  the 


ways  country  life        chap.  i. 
position 

of  the  intelligent  and  well-educated  farmer  may 
well  be  one  of  dignity,  prosperity,  and  content- 
ment. 

After   all,    the    object    of   that    better   society  Gradual 
toward  which  the  civilized  world  is  moving  is  to  «'"anci>a- 
reach  such  a  point  of  abundance  in  production,  Jj""-^""" 
and  of  fairness  in  distribution,  that  the  man  mav  f"nomic 
be  much  more  than  a  mere  factor  in  the  economic   "^"^""^ 
process.     There  was  much  basis  in  fact  for  the 
old  conception  of  the  orthodox  economists,  accord- 
ing to  which  man  was  almost  wholly  concerned 
with  economic  functions,  Hving  hb  life  under  the 
hard-and-fast   sway  of  the   law  of  supply  and 
demand.     But  we  are  destined  to  outlive  that 
conception    and    that    status.     Consciously    or 
unconsciously,  bhndly  or  with  open  eyes,  we  are 
working  out  our  racial  emancipation  from  that 
grind  of  hopeless  toil  whic  Ji  has  been  entitled  the 
primeval  curse. 

In    hopeful    activity    and    useful    occupation   The  value 
there  must,  indeed,  always  be   exceeding  great  "/'«*'«"'■« 
reward.     But  to  have  achieved  a  certain  degree 
of  leisure  lies  at  the  very  essence  of  progress  in 
civilization.     Herein  lies  the  value  of  the  periodic 


i      i: 


I 


M 


if.' 


32 


I' I 

i 

■'  i 

I   I 


id! 


■I  ; 


I    j 
(  .  .  I 

i'i 


CHAP.  I. 


Shortening 
the  hours 
of  toil 


Compensa 
tion  in 
the  use  of 
free  time 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

day  of  rest,  the  occasional  holiday  or  half  holiday, 
and,  above  all,  the  gradual  shortening  of  the  daily 
hours  of  labor  for  all  classes  of  workers ;  pro- 
vided, however,  that  the  shortening  of  hours  is 
attended  by  such  training  ana  education,  and  is 
surrounded  by  such  opportunities,  that  leisure 
from  toil  is  likely  to  be  filled  with  pleasing  and 
improving  activities.  Under  certain  phases  of 
the  old  competitive  struggle  for  existence  a  man's 
toil  for  livelihood  often  occupied  fourteen  or 
sixteen,  or  even  eighteen  hours  out  of  the  twenty- 
four,  and  it  meant  th'-  whole  of  life. 

But  where  men  work  only  eight  or  nine  hours, 
with  a  reasonable  prospect  that  a  few  years  hence 
they  will  work  only  six  or  seven,  the  whole  situa- 
tion changes.  It  becomes  relatively  less  vital 
that  they  should  struggle  absorbingly  to  rise 
from  the  status  of  journeyman  to  master,  and 
from  that  of  master  to  the  man  able  to  retire  from 
a  business  that  always  kept  him  absorbed  and 
breathless,  only  to  find  himself  unfit  for  anything 
except  to  accumulate  adipose  and  to  indulge 
.  somnolence  in  a  stupid  and  reactionary  old  age. 
In  the  better  time  to  come,  when  work  for 
ordinary  workers  of  reasonable  intelligence  shall 
have  taken  on  the  cooperative  as  distinguished 


H  •■  I 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


33 


from  the  competitive  aspect,  and  when  the  tri-  chap.  i. 
umphs  of  invention  and  of  highly  organized  pro- 
duction and  distribution  shall  further  have 
shortened  the  hours  of  labor,  the  son  of  toil  may 
find  ampl<  compensation,  as  he  goes  along,  in  his 
personal  freedom,  in  his  ownership  of  himself. 
He  may  find  himself  in  possession  of  time  enough 
to  cultivate  a  flower  garden,  if  that  is  what  he   The  chance 

likes;    to  acquire  languages  and  studv  compara-  •'"'^ 

°      °  ^  r  avocations 

tive  literature,  if  such  be  his  bent ;  to  experiment 

in  a  laboratory ;  to  cultivate  the  art  of  music,  or, 
in  short,  to  offset  the  monotony  of  his  necessary 
vocation  by  the  variety  and  charm  of  his  avo- 
cations. 

Surely  no  one  will  say  that  this  is  a  fanciful  or  a  forecast 

visionary  forecast,  inasmuch  as  it  is  highly  obvious  °''"^°''^ 
.  finding 

that  m  very  many  fields  of  human  endeavor  that  realization 

type  of  man  has  already  made  his  appearance. 
The  world  is  steadily  moving  toward  the  position 
in  which  the  individual  is  to  contribute  faithfully 
and  duly  his  quota  of  productive  or  protective 
social  effort,  and  to  receive  in  return  a  modest,  cer- 
tain, not  greatly  variable  stipend.  He  will  adjust 
his  needs  and  his  expenses  to  his  income,  guard 
the  future  by  insurance  or  some  analogous 
method,  and  find  margin  of  leisure  and  oppor- 


u 


34 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


''il 


U      ! 


.1    t 


'         -il 


As  in 
German 
and  Eng- 
lish civil 
services 


And  in 
business 
corpora- 
tions 


»•'•! 


tunity  sufficient  to  give  laige  play  to  individual 
tastes  and  preferences.  And  thus  he  will  coun- 
teract any  stagnating  or  deteriorating  effects  that 
might  come  from  wearing  the  harness  of  his 
regular  craft  or  calling  day  by  day. 

One  might  illustrate  by  comment  upon  the 
small-salaried,  well-educated  civil-service  officials 
of  Germany,  who  as  a  class  are  remarkably  con- 
tented, happy,  and  useful;  or  the  military  and 
naval  officers  of  all  countries  in  times  of  peace; 
or  the  class  to  whom  I  have  already  referred, 
engaged  in  this  and  other  countries  in  the  work 
of  education;  or  the  better  class  of  trained  and 
steadily  employed  men  in  the  service  of  great 
railway,  banking,  insurance,  and  other  corpora- 
tions; or  the  class  of  highly  instructed  men  em- 
ployed in  many  branches  of  the  public  service  in 
England,  who  render  a  fair  equivalent  for  the 
salaries  they  obtain,  and  yet  achieve  leisure 
enough,  many  of  them,  to  attain  a  fair  place  in 
literature  and  science,  or  otherwise  to  gratify  their 
individual  tastes.  There  are  few  such  sources  of 
satisfaction  as  to  feel  with  the  poet  that  one's 
mind  is  his  kingdom,  provided  only  that  one  has 
some  little  leisure  in  which  to  occupy  the 
throne. 


I  .. 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


35 


Just  as  the  ultimate  goal  in  a  democracy  is  not 
strife  and  discord,  but  political  harmony  and 
concord,  -  ven  so  in  the  economic  life  of  the  com- 
munity, the  better  hopes  reach  far  beyond  the 
wastefulness  and  strife  of  the  old  competitive 
system  and  demand  the  substitution  for  it  of 
coijperative  methcnls  and  scientific  organization. 
From  this  new  {)erio(l  of  unified  effort  upon  which 
we  are  entering  let  no  man  think  there  can  l)e  any 
return  to  the  competitive  system  as  it  has  existed 
heretofore.  These  are  movements  too  funda- 
mental to  be  vitally  affected  by  hampering  statutes 
or  decisions  of  courts.  Just  as  trades  unionism 
could  never  be  destroyed  by  English  conspiracy 
laws  or  by  'he  American  device  of  injunctions, 
even  so  tiie  unifying  of  transportation  interests  and 
the  scientific  organization  of  industry  will  make 
steady  progress,  not  to  defy  Sherman  Acts  and 
judicial  mandates,  but  to  obey  those  more  funda- 
mental iaw<  and  principles  that  have  come  to 
operate  witL  u  momentum  now  practically  irre- 
sistible 

We  a^  '--rajini'  then  to  iia\e  this  new,  close 
org}ua2smoi]  •;«  miu^try.  We  cannot  make  water 
Tii  anml.  h«:  w«-  -an  <»ften  do  somethinir  to  fix 
■SB-^vt  its  course,  and  divert  what 


CHAP.  I. 

Harmony 
is  the 
economic 
goal 


There  can 
he  no 
return  to 
competitive 
conditions 


Its  .:imiatii 


Control 
of  the 
massed 
economic 
forces 


36 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


|n 


Three 
possible 
methods  — 

(1)    con- 
centration 
in  a  few 
hands 


(2)  control 
by  the 
atat€ 


(3)  by  dif- 
fusion of 
ownership 


might  have  been  the  harmfulness  of  the  flood  to 
useful  and  fructifying  ends.  We  may  be  sure, 
then,  that  in  our  new  economic  society  this  ques- 
tion of  control  will  be  of  vital  importance,  and  that 
it  will  be  settled  in  the  light  of  experience,  on  the 
basis  of  efficiency  and  of  the  greatest  good  to  the 
greatest  number. 

Three  methods  of  future  control  are  readily 
conceivable.  One  method  is  that  of  control  by 
individuals  or  by  syndicates  composed  of  com- 
paratively few  men,  whose  fortunes  may  be  told 
in  hundreds  or  in  thousands  of  millions.  The 
second  method  is  that  of  the  radical  enlargement 
of  the  functions  of  the  political  community,  so 
that  the  people  themselves,  organized  as  the  city, 
the  state,  the  nation,  may  assume  control,  one 
after  another,  of  the  great  common  services  of 
supply,  and  the  great  business(  '  and  industries. 
The  third  method  is  that  of  the  gradual  distribu- 
tion of  the  shares  of  stock  of  industrial  corpora- 
tions among  the  workers  themselves  and  the 
people  at  large,  until  in  one  service  or  industry 
after  another  there  shall  have  come  into  being 
something  like  a  cooperative  .system,  managed  on 
representative  principles,  analogous  in  some  meas- 
ure to  the  carrying  on  of  our  political  institutions. 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


37 


I  have  the  impression  that  we  may  see  some- 
thing in  this  country  of  all  three  of  these  methods 
operating  side  by  side.     Doubtless  in  some  large 
industries  we  shail  for  a  good  while  witness  control 
concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  few  individuals. 
They  will  hold  this  control,  however,  subject  to 
the   inevitable   laws   of  diminishing   returns   on 
capital  and  of  an  ever-improving  status  for  the 
intelligent  employee.     I  may  be  wrong  in   my 
observations    and    impressions,    but    there    has 
seemed  to  me  to  be  a  marked  tendency  toward 
the  gradual  eUmination  from  industrial  control  of 
the  capitalist  as  such,  and  the  substitution  for 
him  of  the  skillful  administrator.     But  the  ad- 
ministrator—  whether  of  the  great  railway  sys- 
tems, like   M.  de  Witte,   formerly  head  of  the 
Russian  system,  or  Mr.  J.  J.  Hill,  or  of  a  great 
manufacturing  enterprise  —  is   produced   in   the 
business  itself,  and  comes  to  the  front  through 
force  of  merit  and  ability. 

Recognizing  this  fact,  the  great  capitalists 
who  wish  their  sons  to  maintain  any  actual  hold 
upon  the  conduct  of  business  see  the  necessity 
of  having  them  taught  in  a  practical  way,  often 
beginning  at  the  very  bottom  of  the  ladder.  The 
larger  the  transjwrtation  and  industrial  corpora- 


CHAP.  I. 

The  three 

methods 

may 

operate 

together 


The  ad- 
ministrator 
supersed- 
ing the 
capitalist 


Corpora' 
t'ons  at 
the  mercy 
of  the 
public 


I 


38 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


1 


T 


• 


p 


•I 


Efficient 
men 
brought 
to  the 
front 


Better 
relations 
of  labor 
and 
capital 


tions  become,  the  more  they  are  at  the  mercy  of 
the  public  —  of  the  state,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
of  their  employees  on  the  other.  The  influence  of 
the  state  will  be  to  make  for  publicity  and  for 
methods  that  tend  to  steadiness,  and  through 
taxation  as  one  method,  and  direct  or  indirect 
regulation  of  rates  and  prices  as  another  method, 
the  community  will  check  the  accumulation  of 
undue  or  monopoly  profits.  On  the  other  side, 
the  employees  will  insist  upon  gradual  ameliora- 
tion of  their  own  status.  Such  conditions  will  of 
necessity  bring  efficient  men  to  the  front  in  the 
organization  of  labor,  and  not  less  so,  certainly, 
in  the  administration  of  the  business  from  the 
standpoint  of  capital. 

And  with  improved  intelligence  on  both  sides 
there  will  come  better  and  closer  understandings, 
with  the  prospect  that  periodic  agreements  upon 
wage  scales  and  conditions  affecting  labor  will 
come  into  common  use,  and  that  not  only  will 
mutual  respect  and  confidence  be  greatly  en- 
hanced, but  the  opportunity  of  the  individual 
workman  to  advance  through  efficiency  and  to 
pass  from  the  inferior  to  the  superior  side  of 
the  situation  will  be  made  easier. 

In  France,  where  the  habit  of  saving  is  very 


!| 


ii; 


J 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


39 


highly  developed,  and  where  capitalistic  control 
is  not  quite  so  firmly  centered  in  the  hands  of 
particular  individuals   as   in   England   and   the 
United  States,  the  tendency  is  toward  the  wide 
distribution  of  the  share  capital  of  railways  and 
of  other  enterprises  among  the  people  who  belong 
to  the  great  working  class,  particularly  to  the 
class  of  skilled  and  intelligent  workers.     In  Ger- 
many, on  the  other  hand,  the  tendency  is  rather 
strongly  in  the  direction  of  the  increase  of  the 
direct   industrial   functions   of  the   municipality 
or  the   higher  government  —  the  employees   of 
railways,  telephones,  and  the  like  assuming  the 
status   of  civil   servants   and    public   employees 
like  our  letter-carriers. 

Within  the  sphere  of  the  municipality  itself  this 
tendency  toward  increase  of  function,  and  there- 
fore toward  the  absorption  of  an  increasing  pro- 
portion of  the  community  into  direct  public  serv- 
ice, is  particularly  strong  in  the  cities  of  England 
and  Scotland,  in  neany  all  of  which  there  is  on 
foot  at  the  present  time  a  movement  for  the  direct 
ownership  and  operation  of  local  transit  lines. 
This  movement  follows  ujron  longer  experience 
in  operating  gas  and  electric  lighting,  as  well  as 
water   supplies;     and    up^n    the   e.\periment   of 


CHAP.  I. 

Diffusion 
of  owner- 
ship in 
France 


Public 
ownership 
in 
Germany 


Same 
tendency 
in  British 
cities 


40 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  I. 


i  .1, 


% 
%], 

% 


Ik 


If 


hi 


With 
efficient 
govern- 
ment 
either 
policy 
would 
work 


Present 
functions 
must  find 
better 
perform- 
ance 


direct  employment  as  opposed  to  the  contract 
system  in  the  making  of  streets  and  sewers,  and 
various  other  kinds  of  public  work. 

I  do  not  know  at  all  what  lines  of  public  policy 
in  these  matters  we  shall  have  preferred  to  adopt 
in  the  course  of  the  average  period  of  active  life 
and  work  of  young  men  now  concerned.  But 
of  one  thing  I  am  entirely  certain,  and  that  is  that 
there  has  never  been  such  a  hopeful  outlook  for 
the  sane  and  wise  dominance  of  the  best  average 
intelligence.  I  would  have  a  government  so 
efficient,  whether  of  the  city  or  the  state,  that  it 
should  become  a  matter  of  comparative  indiffer- 
ence whether  the  go\ernraent  carried  on  a  serv- 
ice directly  for  the  people  as  a  cooperative  com- 
munity, or  whether  it  secured  the  interests  of  the 
citizens  through  the  proper  regulation  and  control 
of  a  private  corporation  whose  shares  of  stock 
should  themselves  be  widely  distributed. 

In  any  case  we  shall  need  very  strong,  capable 
governments,  because  the  increasing  intelligence 
and  refinement  of  the  community  will  demand 
that  those  things  now  undertaken  by  the  govern- 
ment shall  be  managed  with  a  far  higher  degree 
of  skill  and  success  than  heretofore.  The  prepa- 
ration for  this  high  average  improvement  in  the 


'\'' 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


41 


tone  and  quality  of  government,  whether  local 
or  general,  must  simply  come  about,  as  one 
readily  sees  on  reflection,  with  the  improvement 
in  the  intelligence  and  moral  sense  of  our  citizen- 
ship at  large  —  along  with  the  growth  of  a  more 
acute  sense  of  the  practical  value  of  the  commu- 
nity's efforts  to  the  individual  citizen. 

More,  rather  than  less,  shall  we  rely  henceforth 
on  the  principle  of  democracy ;  and  more,  rather 
than  less,  hall  we  be  obliged  to  adopt  the  policy 
of  leveling  up  the  many,  even  if  it  were  only  for 
the  benefit  of  the  few.  Henceforth  the  rich  man 
and  the  talented  man,  quite  as  much  as  the  poor 
man  and  the  man  of  ordinary  parts,  are  to  find 
their  security  and  their  prosperity  in  a  community 
so  ordered  as  to  make  for  the  general  comfort  and 
the  general  welfare. 

The  community  as  a  whole  will  become  the 
repository  of  such  priceless  and  varied  wealth, 
the  administrator  of  such  vast  resources,  the  pro- 
vider of  so  many  things  desirable  and  useful  — 
that  its  services  will  call  for  and  receive  the  best 
talent ;  and  no  one  will  be  so  sufficient  unto  him- 
self that  he  can  afford  to  be  indifferent  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  public  administration. 

It  is  a  very  great  thing  to  have  attained  to  some 


CHAP.  I. 


We  must 
rely  on 
the  prin- 
ciple of 
democracy 


Growing 
wealth 
of  the 

community 
itself 


42 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


P 


Wi' 


: 


I'M 


-It' 


^t 


j 


i 


CHAP.  t. 


The 

emergence 
of  the  ideal 
city 


sort  of  clear  conception  of  the  possibilities  of  the 
ideal  city  of  the  future.  Already  that  ideal  city  is 
eme'  ;.  Its  elements  to  a  large  extent  already 
exist,  some  in  one  place,  some  in  another,  all  of 
them  capable  of  transplantation  and  entirely 
compatible  with  one  another.  Thus  the  city 
with  an  ideal  water  supply  is  not  debarred  from 
possessing  ideal  schools  and  pubUc  libraries. 
The  city  that  has  perfectly  paved  and  well- 
cleaned  streets  may  have  everything  else  that 
makes  for  health,  attractiveness,  safety,  and 
pleasure  in  the  public  apf>ointments.  No  private 
schools  can  possibly  be  as  good  as  the  free  public 
schools  of  the  United  States  are  destined  to  become 
in  the  due  course  of  time.  No  private  museums 
or  galleries  of  art,  no  collections  of  scientific 
objects,  no  libraries,  no  monumental  art  or 
ide/orall  architecture  could  possibly,  in  private  hands, 
attain  such  importance  as  that  which  will  belong 
freely  to  all  the  people  in  common.  No  private 
grounds  could  equal  our  public  parks  as  they 
are  destined  to  develop.  No  individual  could 
conceivably  so  surround  himself  with  safeguards 
for  the  health  of  himself  or  his  family  as  the  com- 
munity will  supply  to  him  and  to  its  humblest 
citizen  alike. 


What  it 
will  pro- 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


43 


Thus  the  evolution  of  the  new  order  of  things  chap.  i. 
is  to  give  us  some  approximation  toward  the  ideal 
of  the  modern  city  with  its  low  death  rate,  its 
admirable  facilities  for  education,  recreation, 
and  physical  culture;  its  improved  industrial 
conditions;  its  well-guarded  housing  arrange- 
ments ;  its  clean  streets  —  free  from  dust  and 
largely  free  from  noise ;  its  pure  atmosphere  — 
with  smoke  abolished ;  its  playgrounds ;  its  public 
baths,  and  its  varied  opportunities  for  the  use 
of  leisure. 

While  the  present  tendency  in  the  re-grouping  An  equcU- 

of  population,  under  which  the  large  towns  are  '""^"^ 

°  country 

growing,  is  doubtless  to  continue  for  some  time  and  city 
to  come,  the  contrast  between  city  and  country 
life  will  become  less  marked ;  for  with  the  readier 
access  of  the  children  of  the  towns  to  the  out-of- 
door  and  open  life  of  the  country,  there  will  also 
come  about  a  great  movement  for  supplying  the 
country  itself  with  some  of  the  advantages  of  the 
town  through  the  cooperative  agencies  to  which 
I  have  alluded.  The  populous  community  of  the 
future,  even  more  than  of  the  past,  must  stand 
firmly  by  the  principle  of  democracy.  One  of 
the  chief  objects  must  be  to  equalize  conditions, 
to  lift  men  up  in  the  scale  of  being,  and  to  fit  the 


conditions 


44 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


u 


i.tl 


CHAP.  I. 


The 

reality  of 
social 
progress 


What  has 
already 
been 
achieved 


oncoming  generation  in  the  best  possible  way  for 
responsible  citizenship. 

When  one  compares  the  conditions  of  life  in  the 
great  towns  as  they  commonly  were  twenty-five 
years  ago  and  as  they  are  at  their  worst  to-day, 
with  those  conditions  that  we  now  see  can  be 
feasibly  supplied  to  r.ll,  we  get  a  new  sense  of  the 
reality  ol  social  progress.  For  it  is  nowadays 
regarded,  not  as  a  wild  dream,  but  as  a  fairly 
sober  and  reasonable  proposition,  to  demand 
that  the  poor  man  may  at  least  live  in  a  model 
tenement,  on  an  asphalted  street,  with  pure  air 
to  breathe  and  with  pure  water  to  drink;  that 
he  may  be  surrounded  by  marvelous  safeguards 
in  the  way  of  health  protection  and  police  and 
fire  protection;  that  he  may  send  his  children  to 
the  very  best  of  schools;  that  in  the  evening  he 
may  read  the  best  of  books  from  the  free  public 
libraries,  by  gas  or  electric  light  cheaply  furnished ; 
that  he  may  hear  the  best  lectures  without  price ; 
may  attend  excellent  free  concerts,  visit  beautiful 
parks,  public  jjnuseums,  and  galleries  of  art,  look 
upon  noble  architecture  and  monumental  statues 
with  a  feeling  of  pride  and  a  sense  of  common 
possession ;  that  he  may  ride  swiftly  and  luxuri- 
ously in  public  vehicles  at  small  price,  and  that 


t  I. 


UNDER  CHANGING  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS 


45 


CHAP.  I. 


he  may  be  safeguarded  against  the  worst  dangers 
of  illness  or  old  age  through  one  form  or  another 
of  benefit  funds  or  social  insurance. 

The  community  which  professes  to  do  all  this   The  poor 
for  its  members  is  at  once  minimizing  the  dis- 


man's  new 
acquisi- 


advantages  of  the  laboring  man  and  lessening  tiona 
the  peculiar  advantages  of  wealth.  For  the  poor 
man,  too,  under  the  eight-hour  system,  is  to  have 
his  leisure,  his  books,  his  music,  his  pictures, 
his  parks,  his  opportunities  of  quick  travel,  his 
swimming  bath,  his  gymnasium,  his  golf  course, 
and  a  hundred  advantages  that  were  wholly  out 
of  reach  even  of  the  well-to-do  man  living  in 
towns  forty  or  fifty  years  ago. 

And  if  it  is  reasonable  to  hope  for  so  much   The 
for  the  intelligent  workingman  —  as  the  new  social  ^'^P^f^ 
order   develops    and    the    ideals    toward    which  for  the 
society  is  working  come  into  fuller  realization  —  «"P«''""" 
surely  the  man  of  higher  education,  more  complete 
training,   or   more    perfect   moral,    mental,    and 
physical  self-control  is  also  to  find  things  better 
rather  than  worse  for  himself.     Least  of  all  should 
he  fear  lest  there  be  somehow  a  diminished  oppor- 
tunity for  him  to  play  some  fitting  part  in  the 
world's  activity,  and  to  reap  some  fitting  reward. 
The   margin   of  individual    risk   is   destined   to 


fi' } 


46 

CBAP.  I. 


The 
general 
trend  of 
■progress 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

diminish.  I  think  it  true,  also,  that  the  margin  of 
opportunity  for  obtaining  very  exceptional  advan- 
tage over  one's  fellows  in  some  particular  direc- 
tions is  also  to  be  diminished.  But  there  will 
be  corresponding  increase  in  the  opportunity  to 
earn  honorable  renown  by  the  full  devotion  of 
one's  talents  to  the  social  good  in  any  chosen  field. 
I  hold  that  the  general  trend  of  progress  at  the 
present  time  lies  before  us  with  exceptional  clear- 
ness; that  life  offers  rewards  and  opportunities, 
as  never  before,  by  virtue  of  the  new  social  and 
industrial  organization;  and  that  the  outlook  is 
bright  with  hope,  through  the  transformed  en- 
vironment that  the  community  is  providing  for 
the  individual,  and  through  the  widening  field  of 
opportunity,  in  consequence,  that  the  individual 
finds  for  activity  and  service  among  his  fellows. 


■i,  . 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


hi! 


iil'l  I 


; ; 


i'i, 


rf 


'n 


CHAPTER  II 

PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

Disguise  the  fact  at  times  as  we  may,  tl.°  eco-  "  Busi- 

nomic  life  has  been  the  absorbing  and  dominating  "^'*"  *" 
.  °   an  absorb- 

interest  with  the  American  people  for  many  years  ing  interest 

past,  and  it  bids  fair  to  hold  the  central  place 
for  a  generation  yet  to  come.  There  are  two 
ways  to  deal  with  this  fact,  according  to  our  con- 
ception of  its  meaning.  On  the  one  hand,  we  may 
apologize  for  it,  deprecate  it,  condemn  it,  and 
endeavor  to  combat  it.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
may  accept  it,  fall  heartily  into  Une  with  it,  find 
its  rational  and  philosophical  basis,  and  endeavor 
to  make  it  harmonize  with  a  social  progress  not 
altogether  gross,  or  material,  or  worldly. 

There  are  to-day  radically  opposed  theories  as  Theories 
to  the  proper  and  desirable  trend  of  our  economic  "^ ''^^ 

...         _,  Socialists 

hfe.     i-or  example,  there  is  the  socialistic  theory; 

and  this  is  advocated  from  two  wholly  different 

standpoints.     Thus  we  have  the  standpoint  of 

those  who  beheve  our  present  system  of  private 

ownership  and  direction  of  ca'^italistic  wealth  to 

be  a  failure  beyond  remedy.     Then,  there  is  the 
£  49 


50 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


f:f 


11 


The  wor- 
shipers of 
private 
property 


The  cheer- 
ful oppor- 
tunists 


One  great 
point  of 
agreement 


standpoint  of  those  who  take  the  more  cheerful 
view  that  an  evolutionary  process  is  bringing  us, 
along  a  more  or  less  stormy  but  not  very  danger- 
ous path,  to  a  gradual  socialistic  extension  of  the 
economic  functions  of  government. 

Over  against  those  who  belong  to  one  or  the 
other  of  these  socialistic  schools  of  thought  are 
those  who  view  all  such  tendencies  with  alarm, 
and  believe  that  the  private  ownership  and  ex- 
ploitation of  wealth  lies  at  the  very  comer  stone 
of  our  social  well-being,  and  must  so  remain. 
Yet  again,  there  are  those  who  are  opportunists, 
or  experimentalists,  and  who  are  willing  to  see 
adjustments  and  compromises  from  time  to  time. 
They  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  subscribe  com- 
pletely to  the  doctrines  of  the  socialist,  nor  yet  to 
those  of  the  individualist. 

But  the  thing  I  wish  to  emphasize  is  the  point 
that,  however  much  these  exponents  of  theory  — 
these  advocates  of  one  policy  or  another  —  may 
differ  in  their  views  as  to  the  control  and  direction 
of  wealth,  they  all  agvej  about  one  main  proposi- 
tion ;  namely,  that  the  production  and  distribution 
of  wealth  constitute  the  most  absorbing  interest 
and  the  most  dominant  problem  of  our  American 
life  in  this  jrenerntion. 


51 


CHAP.  II. 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

Now,  I  also  am  of  the  opinion  that  this  is  quite 

true,  —  although  I  should  not  like  to  be  deprived   y,,g„,,^ 

of  the  right  to  explain  why  I  so  believe  it.     It  is  (">  a  means 

not  for  its  own  sake  that  I  should  regard  wealth  'endi^'^ 

as  the  all-important  thing,  or  the  economic  life 

as  the  dominating  interest.     I  think  of  wealth 

as  a  means  rather  than  as  an  end.     And  I  regard 

the  intense  pressure  of  the  economic  motive,  in 

the  activities  of  our  people,  as  an  evidence  of  the 

coexistence  of  other  motives,  and  as  a  token  of 

the  growth  of  those  wants  and  desires  that  belong 

to  a  higher  civili-'ition  and  a  better  life. 

Young  men  up,  ,.  the  threshold  of  active  careers  As  to 

will  find  many  phases  of  Am  rican  economic  life  ''''''^"''^ 

•        »L     »  •        .  ..  prejudices 

assummg  the  form  of  public  and  social  problems 

about  which  they  must  have  opinions,  and  with 
reference  to  which  they  must  join  their  fellows 
in  taking  action.  We  ought  at  the  outset,  there- 
fore, to  be  wholly  free  from  certain  prejudices  and 
misappnhensions  about  the  nature  and  desira- 
bility of  wealth.  Such  .states  of  mind  have  become 
rather  widespread  in  this  country-,  for  reasons 
natural  enough  and  easy  to  understand. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  la.st  century,  di-saffected 
trades-unionists  sometimes  destroyed  machinery 
and  burned  factories.     In  the  effort  to  get  a  fair 


52 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


m 


Htm 


It 


CHAP.  II. 

The 

hostility 
towards 
capital 


Due  to 

confused 
thinking 


Wealth 
production 
not  to  be 
neglected 


distribution  of  results  from  the  combined  use  of 
capital  and  labor,  there  has  often  come  about 
a  hostility  toward  capital  itself,  which,  of  course, 
as  you  know,  is  based  upon  a  fallacy.  In  like 
manner,  the  control  of  great  masses  of  wealth 
(capitalized  in  the  form  of  railways,  or  industrial 
agencies)  by  a  few  individuals,  or  by  great  cor- 
porations centered  in  a  few  hands,  has  often  been 
unwisely  or  unfairly  exercised.  And  in  the  popu- 
lar mind  there  has  been  some  natural  confusion, 
so  that  indignation  against  the  abuse  of  economic 
power  has  been  directed  against  economic  forces 
in  themselves,  as  if  capital  were  an  evil. 

I  will  not  for  a  moment  suppose  that  any  of 
you  are  in  serious  danger  of  entertaining  a  fallacy 
of  this  sort.  Yet  we  are  all  more  or  less  influenced 
by  popular  prejudice;  and  in  our  righteous 
zeal  for  the  correction  of  economic  evils,  and  the 
more  perfect  distribution  of  wealth  among  the 
people  whose  efforts  go  to  produce  it,  we  may 
be  in  some  danger  of  losing  sight  of  the  fact  that 
wealth  must  exist  l)efore  it  can  be  distributed, 
and  that  the  productive  processes,  as  well  as  the 
distributive,  are  not  to  be  neglected. 

The  real  task,  of  course,  that  presents  itself 
to  each  generation  in  turn,  is  the  bettering  of  its 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS  53 

social  life,  so  that  it  may  transmit  to  the  genera-      chap.  „. 
tion  that  is  to  follow  all  the  heritage  of  good  it  has  y.^^ 
itself  received,  with  some  enrichment  and  addi-  process  of 
tion  thereto.    And  on  this  platform,  in  this  uni-  "".'"•«'""- 
versity  atmosphere,  at  the  end  of  an  academic  """ 
year,  I  should  indeed  seem  both  obtuse  and  ungra- 
cious if  I  should  ignore  the  fact  that  this  trans- 
mission of  our  heritage  of  civilization  might  best 
be  expressed  in  educational  terms.     For  we  have 
received  treasures  of  knowledge,  and  many  up- 
lifting ideals,  which  it  is  one  of  the  chief  duties 
of  the  academic  world  to  preserve  and  to  pass 
on  in  endless  succession. 

But  in  the  earlier  generations,  it  was  the  privi-  Poverty 
lege  only  of  a  very  few  to  enter  the  temple  where  '^  "'^"^ 
the  sacred  fire  of  mental  and  spiritual  enlighten-  '""" 
ment  was  kept  aUve.    And  this,  let  me  remind 
you.  was  for  the  very  simple  and  sordid  reason 
that  the  world  was  poor. 

Those  were  the  days  of  favored  classes,  when 
a  few  were  rich,  powerful,  and  dominant,  a  few 
were  learned  and  refined,  and  the  great  mass  of 
men  were  in  slavish  subjection  because  of  igno- 
rance and  of  poverty.  The  past  centuiy  has 
revolutionized  everything.  And  the  chief  agency 
of  human  emancipation  has  been  the  creaUon  of 


54 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 

Capital 
the  chief 
agency  of 
progress 


The 

growth  of 
recent 
wealth 


wealth  or  capital  in  the  modern  sense,  due  to  a 
series  of  innovations  following  one  another  rapidly, 
and  bv^st  characterized  in  a  word  by  reference 
to  the  utilization  of  steam  power,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  fact  try  system,  and  the  building  of 
railroads. 

It  has  been  so  often  said  that  it  has  become  a 
commonplace,  —  yet  at  this  point  it  may  well 
be  said  again,  —  that  nowadays  in  every  decade 
we  are  probably  creating  nore  real  wealth  in  the 
world  than  h>uj  come  into  existence,  in  countries 
having  our  kind  of  civilization,  through  all  the 
ages,  up  to  nearly  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  New  England  in  the  early  days  and 
Virginia  —  and  later  our  westward  valleys  — 
were  able,  out  of  the  first  freshness  and  richness 
of  the  virgin  soil,  to  give  a  sort  of  economic  inde- 
pendence and  rud'^  comfort  to  a  limited  popula- 
tion at  a  time  when  land  was  free  to  all  comers. 
But  the  great,  complex  structure  of  American 
civilization  has  been  built  up  through  the  addition 
to  our  primitive  agriculture  of  further  costly  and 
elaborate  economic  processes. 

There  was  virtue,  intelligence,  and  »  certain 
charm  about  the  primitive  American  life.  But  all 
observation  and  experience  go  to  show  that  it 


(  I 


»    « 

■J 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

could  not  long  have  held  its  own.  The  pioneer 
stage  is  temporary  and  transitional.  It  must 
evolve  into  something  more  complex,  or  it  must 
inevitably  decay.  The  log-cabin  life,  in  the  first 
generation  of  determined  people  who  face  the 
wilderness  conditions  in  order  to  plant  the  begin- 
nings of  civilization  for  posterity,  is  compatible 
with  a  certain  dignity  of  manners,  and  with  a 
fair  degree  of  intellectual  culture. 

But  when  in  any  given  region  the  log-cabin 
period  takes  the  form  of  an  arrested  social  develop- 
ment, and  lingers  on  into  the  second,  the  third, 
or  the  fourth  generation,  —  then  the  physical, 
the  moral,  and  the  mental  prowess  of  the  fo.-e- 
fathers  has  a  tendency  almost  wholly  to  disappear. 
Marks  of  degeneracy  become  apparent;  and  it 
is  plain  that  the  only  salvation  of  such  a  region, 
which  has  failed  for  itself  to  grow  into  more 
advanced  and  complex  economic  and  social  con- 
ditions, must  be  the  sheer  injection,  from  without, 
of  the  transforming  hand  of  modern  capitalistic 
enterprise. 

The  destruction  of  the  poor  is  indeed  his 
poverty.  And  the  emancipation  of  poverty- 
stricken  regions  must  rom(>  about  through  an 
economic  new  birth.     Let  us  look  for  a  moment 


55 

CHAP.  11. 

The 

primitive 
A  merican 
life 


Stagnation 
in  the  log- 
cabin  stage 


Economic 

ri  viral 
in  certain 
regions 


56 


CHAP.  II. 


The 

Southern 
mountain 
districts 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

concretely  at  processes  now  going  on  very  rapidly 
in  certain  parts  of  our  Southern  states,  in  order 
to  illustrate  the  slower  process  of  evolution  that 
has  been  at  work  for  a  century  in  England,  France, 
Massachusetts,  and  some  other  parts  of  our  own 
country. 

Undoubtedly  there  could  be  named  considerable 
districts,  perhaps  whole  counties,  in  the  upland 
or  mountainous  parts  of  several  Southern  states, 
where  as  recently  as  twenty  years  ago  there  was 
scarcely  a  house  really  fitted  for  human  habitation, 
scarcely  a  district  school  better  than  a  cabin  or  a 
shanty,  and  scarcely  a  teacher  fit  for  the  simplest 
tasks  of  the  teaching  profession.  In  those  regions 
there  was  perhaps  scarcely  a  mile  of  road  that 
could  be  traversed  at  all  times  of  the  year  by  a 
carriage,  and  scarcely  any  evidence  whatever 
of  private  thrift  or  progress,  or  of  public  asso- 
ciated life. 

What  had  gone  wrong  with  those  regions? 
They  had  been  settled  in  the  beginning  by  a  brave 
and  hardy  stock.  But  the  conditions  of  progress 
had  been  lacking,  and  as  the  freshness  and  spirit 
of  the  first  and  second  generations  passed  away, 
there  had  followed  the  unavoidable  decline  that 
goes  with  poverty  and  stagnation  of  life. 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


57 


Yet   in   many   neighborhoods   that   fifteen   or      chap.  n. 
twenty  years  ago  answered  to  some  such  descrip-  jf^^ 
tion  as  this,  there  has  come  about  a  most  marvel-  arrival 
ous  transformation.     Some  capitahst  or  business  "cJ^Ualist 
corporation  has  developed  a  water  power,  built  a 
factory  or  a  mill,  opened  a  mine,  started  a  town, 
given  steady  work  to  the  men  and  women  who 
had  been  half  occupied  with  the  scanty  operations 
of  their  hillside  farms  and  their  log-cabin  homes. 
And  the  change  that  has  come  about  has  been 
like  the  brightness  and  hope  of  day,  following 
the  darkness  and  dread  of  night. 

Hundreds  of  families  that  had  lived  in  unwhole- 
some cabins  now  occupy  houses  of  several  rooms,  Social 
with    modern    comforts.     Steady    work,    regular  trani^for- 
hours,  money  with  which  to  buy  proper  food,  ^//e"' 
suitable  clothing,  decent  abodes,  and  the  mo<lern  factory 
appointments  of  a  decorous  home  life,  have  within  ^'"^^ 
two  decades  brought  these  backward  communities 
into  line  with  the  life  and  progress  of  the  outside 
world.     The  good  schoolhouse,  with  proper  ap- 
pointments, and  the  well-trained  and  inspiring 
teacher  have   made   their  appearance,   and   the 
children  are  living  in  contact  with  the  modern 
world  of  ideas. 
From  such  quickened  and  revived  neighbor- 


58 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


.  I 


CHAP.  II. 

How 
wealth 
brings 
civilization 


Popular 

culture 

requires 

diffused 

prosperity 


hoods  it  is  not  difficult  for  the  ambitious  boy  or 
girl  to  make  his  way  to  the  nearest  college  or 
university   about   which   his   teacher   gives   him 
hopeful  advice.     It  is  the  introduction  of  wealth 
in  the  form  of  industrial  capital,  providing  re- 
munerative work,  and  creating  and  distributing 
new  wealth,  that  has  thus  completely  changed 
the  aspect  of  life  in  these  once  hopeless  neighbor- 
hoods.    There  had  been  no  schools  worth  the 
name  for  two  reasons :   first,  because  intelligence 
had  so  declined  that  the  demand  for  goo<l  schools 
did  not  exist;   and  second  (and  chiefly),  because 
there   was   not   enough   social   or   neighborhood 
wealth  that  could  be  drawn  upon  to  build  a  good 
schoolhouse  or  to  pay  a  good  teacher. 

In  short,  all  the  conditions  of  American  Ufe 
demand  an  educated,  efficient  democracy.  It 
will  not  answer,  as  in  former  generations,  to  give 
culture  and  training  to  the  few.  Yet  there  cannot 
be  culture  among  the  masses  of  the  people  with- 
out such  a  diffusion  of  wealth  as  will  support 
culture.  There  must  be  taxable  wealth  in  the 
state,  in  the  county,  in  the  .leighborhood,  if  there 
are  to  be  good  schools,  good  roads,  and  those 
facilities  and  appointments  that  are  recognized 
as  making  up  the  irreducible  minimum  of  advan- 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

tages  to  which  in  common  decency  every  self- 
respecting  American  community  now  has  a 
right  to  aspire.  Your  temples  of  knowledge 
and  culture  must  be  multiplied  and  opened  to 
everybody,  and  this  can  only  come  about  with 
the  large  growth  of  capital  and  the  diffusion  of 
wealth. 

We  are  indeed  face  to  face  with  some  public 
and  social  problems  that  have  to   do  with   the 
wiser  and  better  control  of  masses  of  accumu- 
lated wealth  used  in  production.    And  it  is  my  pur- 
pose, after  a  few  moments  more,  to  say  something 
about  these  aspects  of  our  economic  life.     But 
let  me  dwell  for  a  moment  longer  upon  the  point 
that  I  believe  to  have  been  too  much  neglected 
in  our  recent  economic  discussion.     It  became 
the  fashion  to  say,  some  twenty-five  years  ago, 
that  from  the  days  of  Adam  Smith's  great  work 
on  "The  Wealth  of  Nations,"  down  to  the  days 
of  Henry  George's  "Progress  and  Poverty,"  the 
chief  trend  of  economic  thought,  as  well  as  the 
chief  function  of  practical  economic  forces,  had 
to  do  with  the  production  of  wealth.     But  from 
that   time   forth,  —  so   went   the   dictum.  — the 
foremost  question  had  come  to  be  the  distribution, 
upon  a   more  equitable   plan,   of  the   relatively 


69 

CHAP.  II. 

So  there 
must  be 
taxable 
wealth 


Dicta 
regarding 
production 
and  dis- 
tribution 


I 


60 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


:        > 


v.: 
\i  > 


CHAP.  II. 


The 

captivating 

partial 

truth 


Benefits 
already 
accrued 


plentiful  means  of  life  that  the  new  forces  had 
brought  into  being. 

A  partial  truth  is  often  very  captivating.     And 
it  is  quite  true  that  the  great  increase  of  economic 
means,   already   realized   in   civilized   countries, 
ought  to  find  expression  in  a  vast  enhancement 
of   the   average    welfare.     In   other   words,   the 
standard    of    living    ought    to    have    advanced. 
Workers  ought  to  have  secured  shorter  hours  of 
toil,  ought  to  be  better  fed  and  clothed,  ought  to 
live  in  better  houses,  ought  to  have  far  better 
pri/ate  and  public  opportunities  for  the  comfort 
and  welfare  of  their  families  than  half  a  century 
ago.     Mr.  Henry  Cieorge  and  other  writers  took 
the  ground  that  modern  wealth  production  had 
fallen   far  short   of  its   reasonable   promise,   as 
respects  these  advantages  to  the  people  at  large. 
I  am  not  taking  issue  with  Mr.  George,  or  dealing 
contentiously   with   any    phase   of   this   subject. 
But  whether  or  not  the  governmental  or  legal 
conditions  under  which   our  economic  life  has 
developed  have  to  some  extent  stood  in  the  way 
of  the  just  and  fair  apportionment  of  benefits, 
there  has  in  the  main  been  freedom  of  economic 
opportunity,  and  there  has  been  a  very  wide- 
spread, even  though  insufficient,  apportionment 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


61 


i 


of  the  yearly  results  of  economic  effort.  In  other 
words,  the  hours  of  labor  are  much  shorter,  the 
standard  of  living  Js  much  advanced,  the  refine- 
ments of  life  are  far  more  accessible  and  better 
distributed  now  than  ever   )efore. 

The  doctrine  that  seems  to  me  to  have  been 
neglected  of  late  is  this;  namely,  that  while  apply- 
ing ourselves  to  the  correction  of  injustice  in  the 
dividing  up  of  the  results  of  productive  force, 
we  must  not  forget  that  what  we  chiefly  need  is 
the  still  larger  accumulation  of  protluctive  capital, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  still  larger  fund  for 
distribution  and  consumption,  on  the  other  hand. 
What  we  are  really  working  for  is  the  abolition  of 
poverty,  in  order  that  there  may  be  yet  more 
of  leisure,  and  refinement,  and  culture  in  the  lives 
of  all  the  people. 

With  the  right  kind  of  education,  allied  as  it 
is  with  the  wonderful  discoveries  of  modern 
science,  we  know  that  culture  and  labor  can  go 
hand  in  hand.  Shall  we  then  fear  the  further 
growth  of  wealth  and  prosjierity  in  this  country  ? 
Shall  we  allow  ourselves  to  believe  that  poverty 
is  wholesome  and  that  wealth  is  demoralizing? 
Shall  we  apologize  for  making  two  blades  of 
grass  grow  where  one  grew  before?    Shall  we 


CHAP.  II. 


Yet  the 
chief  need 
is  further 
production 


The  object 
is  to 
abolish 
poverty 


62 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 


An  in- 
stance of 
work  for 
enhanced 


look  askance  at  the  man  who  is  diligent  in 
business,  and  whose  thrift  and  energy  give 
him  control  of  productive  capital,  the  use  of 
which  ameliorates  the  condition  of  an  entire 
neighborhood  ? 

We  are  afraid  of  these  things  only  when  we 
state  them  prguraentatively,  or  in  abstract  terms. 
Let  us  look  at  some  of  them  concretely,  because 
pro  uchon  j  ^^  intending  in  this  talk  to  young  men  to  deal 
with  the  philosophy  of  things  that  they  are  going 
to  find  very  practical  in  their  future  work.  I 
have  more  than  once  had  occasion  to  speak  of  a 
Western  professor  of  agriculture,  who  began  some 
three  or  four  years  ago  to  teach  to  his  state  the 
doctrine  of  scientific  selection  in  the  choice  of 
seed  corn.  He  had  experimented  very  carefully 
on  the  state  agricultural  f.^rm.  He  gave  the 
results  through  printing  press  and  word  of  mouth 
to  all  the  farmers  of  a  great  agricultural  state. 
He  showed  them  how  they  could  immediately 
increase  the  corn  crop,  by  a  good  many  bushels 
to  the  acre,  every  year.  His  efforts  at  once  added 
millions  of  dollars  to  the  yearly  income  of  the 
farmers,  and  at  least  a  hundred  million  dollars 
to  the  permanent  value  of  the  farm  lands  of  the 
state  that  employed  him. 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


63 


1  ve  a  ten- 
,  *hon,  one 

I  •<     .lt|;      ,1! 

.  '  *        '•  ^    .-. 


not 

demoraliz- 
ing 


This,  then,  is  exactly  what  I  mean  by  preaching      chap.  ir. 
the  gospel  that  further  wealth  production  is  what   jp^^^,^ 
we  need,  and  that  if  we  go  about  it  broadly  and  rightly 
intelligently  we  shall  do  good  and  not  harm,  so  ^'"'"'""'^ 
that  the  question  of  distribution  will 
dency  to  take  care  of  itself.     Whf '•    , 
may  say  about  the  demoralizat    .t  ( 
the  abstract,  when  it  comes  f»  a  <.,  ui< 
nobody  really  believes  that   i'      M.-tX: 
farmer  who  has  grown  rich  b-    a;;..;*  I  ■  i, , 
wisely  and  intelligently,  is  'ilf  m      -  .   .  ra.    i   ■' 
as  the  poverty  of  his  neighbor.  -  iu.  h  .    lo.  M,„-.f 
poor  because  he  has  not  brought  hi.-  !  .iu  vt  to 
its  reasor.Sle  possibilities. 

I  might  cite  as  another  instance  the  great  pros-  in  the 
perity  that  has  come  to  certain  parts  of  Louisiana  ^''''f  "-^ 
and  Texas  through  a  new  kind  of  rice  farming, 
introduced  by  a  representative  of  the  Department 
of  Agriculture,  who  is  a  man  of  great  'earning, 
practical  sense,  and  desire  for  the  progress  and 
welfare  of  the  country.  Or  I  could  take,  for 
further  example,  the  great  fight  of  tl  e  cotton 
growers  of  the  South  against  the  boll  weevil,  and 
the  enormous  enhancement  of  wealth  di  c  to  ex- 
periments and  efforts  in  the  field  of  an  improved 
cotton  culture. 


64 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  II. 

An  in- 
stance in 
the  minereU 
field 


A  new 
com  mer  rial 
substance 


Xo  alarm 
in  the  reed 
procesMg 
of  wealth 
production 


Recently  we  were  reading  in  the  newspapers  of 
Mr.  Edison's  journeyings  through  this  region  in 
search  of  deptosits  of  a  metallic  substance  called 
cobalt.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  tell  you  anything 
about  cobalt  and  its  uses,  but  Mr.  Edison  is 
reported  to  have  said  that  its  finding  in  ample 
commercial  quantities  would  make  storage  bat- 
teries so  much  cheaper,  that  electric  automobiles 
would  banish  truck  horses  from  the  streets,  and 
come  within  the  means  for  pleasure  purposes  of 
many  a  family  that  othei-wise  could  not  indulge 
in  that  form  of  modern  diversion. 

Surely  nobody  supposes  that  Mr.  Edison's 
discovery  and  utilization  of  supplies  of  cobalt 
could  be  otherwise  than  commendable  and  benefi- 
cent. A  great  industry  has  Iwcn  built  up  in 
recent  years  through  the  invention  of  processes 
that  give  to  the  world  for  many  uses  at  a  cheap 
price  the  metal  called  aluminum.  Such  develop- 
ments add  at  once  to  private  wealth  and  public 
weal ;  and  to  deny  it  is  to  abdicate  common  sense. 

When,  therefore,  we  talk  in  abstract  terms 
about  the  growth  of  wealth  and  its  dangers,  we 
give  ourselves  a  kind  of  alarm  that  <lisappears 
when  we  face  directly  most  of  the  real  processes 
by   which   wealth   is   created   and   accumulated. 


65 


CHAP.  II. 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

It  is  Professor  Holden  teaching  the  farmers  how 
to  raise  corn;    it  is  Dr.  Knapp  promoting  rice 
culture;    it  is   somebody  else   fighting  the  boll 
weevil;  it  is  the  inventor  who  gives  us  aluminum 
or  the  electric  light,  or  the  cyanide  process  for 
the  reduction  of  low-grade  gold  ore,  —  it  is  these 
men,  and  many  others  of  whom  these  are  examples, 
who  are  producing  the  enhanced  wealth  of  the 
country,  and  they  are  engaged  in  a  mission  of 
great  beneficence.     The  enlarged   corn  crop  of 
Iowa  will  send  many  a  boy  and  giri  to  college   What  it 
who  would  not  otherwi.se  have  gone.     It  will  in-  ""'""'' '" 
crease  the  taxable  basis  and   provide  many  a..   ''""^""' 
improved  country  school  and   many  a  mile  of 
good  roadway;    and  the  scientific  work  of  your 
own  university  laboratories  will  have  so  unlocked 
hidden  treasures  of  mineral  wealth  in  your  own 
state  as  to  accomplish  like  results. 

The  more  energetically  you  turn  your  attention  The, king 
to  the  further  development  of  the  resources  of  '*<"  '» '" ''« 
wealth  lying  all  about  you,  working  in  the  right 
spirit  and  under  modern  conditions  of  fair  play, 
the  better  it  will  \w  for  everylxxly  in  the  com- 
munity. We  have  .scratche.1  the  surface  of  the 
country  from  one  ocean  to  the  other,  and  in  many 
parts  of  it  we  have  exhausted  the  first  richness  of 


done 


I 


66 


CHAP.  II. 


:'!! 


The 

intensive 
methods 


Growth  and 
power  of 
individual 
fortunes 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

the  soil.  But  in  the  very  nick  of  time  scientific 
agriculture  has  come  to  our  aid;  nature  study 
tends  to  alleviate  some  of  the  drudgery  of  life  on 
the  land ;  the  telephone,  free  rural  delivery,  cheap 
and  abundant  reading  matter,  better  means  of 
transit,  and  many  other  modern  facilities, give  fresh 
hope  and  courage  to  the  people  who  till  the  soil. 

Thus  we  shall  increase  and  multiply  the  wealth 
produced  from  the  land  as  the  years  go  by,  and 
as  our  farmers  apply  scientific  knowledge  and 
the  intensive  methods  of  culture.  In  like  manner 
we  shall  train  and  develop  the  inventive  genius 
of  the  boys,  whether  of  the  mountain  side  or  of 
the  city,  and  add  untold  wealth  to  the  community 
through  new  iniiistrial  processes  and  a  higher 
utilization  of  human  skill  and  resource. 

But,  some  one  may  fairly  object,  while  it  is 
true  that  all  this  great  coming  development  of 
prosperity  through  improved  knowledge  and  skill, 
the  better  use  of  the  soil,  the  opening  of  mines, 
the  utilizing  of  electric  power,  and  the  perfection 
of  industrial  pn>cesses  cannot  be  harmful  and 
must  be  of  general  Wnefit,  what  is  there  to  Im*  said 
about  the  ni«)n»)|K)li.stic  jKiwer  of  individual  for- 
tunes grown  so  great  that  they  seem  beyond  all 
social  control  ? 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

It  would  be  useless  to  deny  that  the  existence  of 
these  colossal  fortunes  is  very  generally  rega;-ded 
by  thoughtful  men  as  to  be  regretted.  But  it 
cannot  now  be  safely  said  with  certainty  that  such 
fortunes  are  destined  to  constitute  a  menace  in  the 
future.  Their  vastness  has  been  due  to  condi- 
tions that  must  be  frankly  studied,  and  that  must 
in  some  respects  be  severely  changed. 

In  mediieval  days,  the  barons  l,uilt  their  castles 
on  the  cliffs  along  the  Rhine,  armed  their  retainers, 
and  took  forcible  toll  of  the  merchants  and  traf- 
fickers, all  the  way  from  Switzerland  to  the  Nether- 
lands, who  used  the  river  as  their  main  highway 
of  trade.     And  thus  the  barons  became  rich  and 
powerful.     And  they  seemed,  indeed,  to  insti- 
tute a  serious   menace   to   the  general   welfare. 
But  as  civilization  develo,)ed,  the  feudal  customs 
and  tyrannies  disappeared.     The  castles  fell  into 
ruins.     In  due  time  there  were  railroads  on  both 
•)anks  of  the  Rhine,  ami  a  wholly  new  set  of  prob- 
lems confronted  those  who  bought  and  sold  and 
trafficked  in  merchandi.se  along  the  Rhine  valley 
with  its  rich  cities  and  mrnlern  activities. 

Vou  Will  already  have  anticipate*!  what  I  am 
going  to  say.  We  cnnitcd  ...ir  railroad  system 
in  this  country  under  conditions  of  bold  private 


67 

CHAP.  II. 

Are  they 
a  menace  T 


The 
robber 
barons  of 
oUlen 
time 


Chanr/ea 
on  the 
highways 
of  trade 


How  we 

built  our 
roilniadu 


1 


f? 


68 


CHAP.  II. 


The  specu- 
lative era 


A  system 
of  railroad 
favors  — 


Which 
ijave  rise 
to  the 
ni'w  kind 
of  "  may- 
naliM" 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

initiative,  crass  speculation,  and  total  failure  of 
government  on  the  one  hand,  and  public  opinion 
on  the  other,  to  understand  the  true  functions  of 
the  railroads  as  common  carriers  and  public 
highways.  The  government  gave  away  imperial 
zones  of  land,  and  lent  its  credit  to  syndicates 
and  companies  to  get  the  railroads  built.  Then, 
in  turn,  the  railroads  trafficked  in  land  and  town 
sites,  promoted  manufacturing  enterprises,  and 
competed  with  one  another  recklessly  and  furi- 
ously for  traffic  with  which  to  keep  from  falling 
too  frequently  into  bankruptcy  courts  and  receiv- 
erships. 

The  consequence  of  this  system  was  that  every 
merchant  or  manufacturer  secured  from  the 
railroad  the  best  rates  he  could  get ;  and  the  more 
p<iwerful  the  shipper,  the  larger  was  the  secret 
rebate  he  was  able  to  obtain,  to  the  disadvantage 
of  other  competing  .shippers  in  his  own  line. 
And  thus  aro.se  a  system  of  favoritism  in  the 
employment  of  the  great  highways  of  commerce 
that  built  up  the  wheat  and  grain  magnates  own- 
ing elevator  lines;  the  beef  and  packing-house 
barons;  the  iron  and  steel  and  coal  magnates, 
the  petroleum  monopolists,  and  others  in  their 
turn  and  their  degree.     It  was  ail  in  its  peculiar 


ll 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

way  almost  as  simple,  when  one  stops  to  con- 
sider it.  as  the  system  by  which  the  medieval 
barons  of  the  Rhine  took  undue  advantage  of 
the  trade  that  had  to  pass  al,.ng  that  historic 
waterway. 

Let  us  not  be  too  full  of  indignation  against 
those  who  benefited  most  from  an  objectionable 
system.     The  smaller  traders  who  paid  toll  on 
the  Rhine  would  gladly  have  exchanged  places 
^'th  the  men  who  owned  the  castles  on  the  shores 
if  they  could,  or  yet  more  gladly  with  the  larger 
traders  who  paid  less  toll.     Our  recent  period 
of  railway  discrimination  was  one  in  which  every 
shipper,  great  and  small,  was  glad  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  best  rate  he  could  possibly  get.     VVe 
had  to  live  through  this  peculiar  period  in  our 
economic  history,  in  order  finally  to  come  into 
the  conception  of  railroads  as  essentially  public 
in  their  nature.     Many  of  the  greatest  fortunes 
of  the  country  are  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  those 
who  had  the  best  railroad  rates  could  do  the  most 
business,  and  in  a  country  as  great  and  prosperous 
as  ours,  to  do  the  most  business  meant  to  become 
excwdingly  rich.     If  we   were   somewhat   tardy 
•n  rescuing  the  national  highways  from  unfair 
use  in  the  interest  of  favored  individuals  or  com- 


69 


CHAP.  II. 


Who  Was 
responsi- 
ble 


The  later 
conception 
of  rail- 
roads as 
public 


Mean- 
while, the 
favorites 
were  rich 


I 


'I 
\ 

A 

.1 


70 


CHAP.  II. 


The 

masters  of 
transpor- 
tation 


mtr 


•lt.t 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

panics,  we  seem  at  last  to  have  become  fairly 
awake  to  that  whole  situation. 

And  since  this  forms  one  of  the  essential  strands 
in  the  thread  of  my  discourse,  I  may  be  allowed 
to  say  something  further,  at  this  point,  upon  the 
railroad  question  as  fundamental  in  its  bearing  on 
almost  every  phase  of  the  problems  of  wealth  pro- 
duction, control,  and  distribution  in  this  country. 

Naturally,  then,  the  railroads  developed  .some 
great  magnates  or  barons  of  their  own,  under 
the  speculative  and  ill-regulated  system  that  pre- 
vailed, and  it  could  not  have  been  otherwise. 
They  were  not  worse  men  in  their  relations  to 
the  community  than  smaller  business  men  who 
envied  them.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  main, 
they  were  men  of  large  vision  and  great  capacity, 
whose  part  in  the  useful  development  of  the  coun- 
try was  even  greater  than  the  princely  rewards 
they  took  to  themselves  for  their  efforts. 

There  were  in  those  olden  times  to  which  I  have 
referred  great  Hanseatic  merchants  who  got  on 
well  with  the  barons  of  the  Rhine  cliffs,  and  who 
rt'garded  the  tolls  they  paid  as  for  protection,  safe 
conduct,  and  unimpetled  navigation.  And  doubt- 
less, in  the  alliance  between  the  richer  of  the  mer- 
chants and  the  stronger  of  the  feudal  chiefs,  the 


i 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

merchants  got  the  larger  share  of  the  profit  from 
the  use  of  the  Rhine  for  purposes  of  commerce. 

We  need  not  pursue  the  analogy  any  further. 
The  exchange  of  local  surpluses  throughout  this 
country,  made  possible  by  railroads,   has  been 
the  foremost  single  factor  in  promoting  the  stu- 
pendous enlargement  of  wealth  that  has  come 
about  in  our  own  times.     The  railroad  system 
has  enriched  those  fortunate  enough  to  control 
It,  and  it  has  aggrandized  those  who  were  able 
to  make  use  of  it  on  more  favorable  terms  than 
their  fellows.     And  so  the  great  industrial  mag- 
nates, so-called,  in  dose  and  confidential  alliance 
with  the  railway  powers,  have  grown  enormously 
rich ;   and  this  alliance  has,  in  many  cases,  been 
the  true  secret  of  their  growth.     It  is  this  that 
goes  far  to  explain  the  mystery  of  their  rapid 
overshadowing  of  competitors. 

The  time  has  come  to  see  all  this  clearly,  and 
it  should  Iw  stated  without  hesitation  and  with 
utter  frankness.  But  it  is  only  part  of  the  story. 
It  has  all  belonged  to  a  disappearing  age  «.f  sjjecu- 
lative  development,  in  which  not  only  the  rail- 
road system,  but  almost  every  other  form  of 
business  activity  wa.s  cfimpletely  involved,  in  the 
three  or  four  decades  following  the  Civil  War. 


71 


CHAP.  n. 


How 
railroads 
have  pro- 
moted 
wealth 


The 

special 

alliances 


Only  half 
the  ntury 


-:a»Vi^ 


72 

CHAP.  II. 

The 

mitigating 

conditions 


The  real 
test  of 
wealth 


What  the 
great 
fortunes 
mean 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

The  misuse  of  the  railway  system  to  some  extent, 
—  harmful  as  it  was  to  the  victims  of  a  favored 
and  rebated  competition,  —  did  not  outweigh 
its  general  advantages.  The  undue  wealth  of 
the  barons  of  transportation  and  industry  was, 
and  is,  small  in  comparison  with  the  vast  dis- 
tributed accumulations  that  have  gone  to  the 
enrichment  of  thousands  of  communities  and 
millions  of  individuals,  through  the  op>ening  up 
of  200,000  miles  of  commerce-bearing  steel  high- 
ways in  the  United  States. 

Always  keep  in  mind  the  two  kinds  of  wealth ; 
namely,  that  which  consists  in  the  control  of  the 
means  of  production,  and  that  which  signifies 
abundance  for  purposes  of  use  in  consumption. 
The  man  who  owns  great  New  England  shoe  fac- 
tories has  large  capitalistic  power;  but  the  final 
test  of  wealth  is  in  the  ability  of  the  people  in 
general  to  buy  and  wear  all  the  shoes  they  need. 
In  this  country,  thus  far,  the  great  fortunes 
have  not  been  used  very  wastefully.  They  simply 
mean  a  centering  of  control  over  capital  engaged 
in  producing  things.  When  such  capital  is  man- 
aged efficiently,  the  results  must,  of  necessity,  in 
the  main,  be  distributed  to  the  communitv  at 
large  in  the  form  of  commodities  that  enter  into 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


73 


common  use.  The  shoe  manufacturer's  wealth 
—  in  the  form  of  control  over  factories  and  ma- 
chinery —  would  speedily  disappear  but  for  the 
diffused  wealth  of  the  people  whirh  enables 
them  to  buy  his  output. 

But  the  truth  is  that  productive  capital  is 
increasing  very  rapidly,  and  must  continue  to 
do  so;  and  that  those  now  in  control  of  it  have 
an  advantage  over  others  in  securing  control  of 
further  new  increments  of  capital.  We  shall 
have  to  go  on  even  more  than  heretofore  with 
production  on  the  large  scale,  backed  up  by  accu- 
mulated capital.  And  the  control  of  that  capital 
should  not  rest  so  largely  in  the  hands  of  a  few. 
At  some  points,  the  government  should,  directly 
or  indirectly,  share  in  the  control,  while  at  other 
points  there  should  be  a  wider  subdivision  of 
control  among  private  owners. 

A  perfectly  fair  use  of  railroads  will  have  much 
to  do  with  checking  the  tendency  towanl  the  dan- 
gerous concentration  of  capital  in  a  few  hands ; 
and  when  the  tendency  is  checked,  the  problem 
loses  its  immediate  urgency.  It  may  then  safely 
be  left  for  those  solutions  ihat  will  come  with 
longer  time  and  more  thorough  study. 

Thus,  thirty  years  ago,  the  problem  of  land 


CHAP.  II. 

The 

capitalist's 

dependence 


Control 
of  capital 
is  too 
much  con- 
centrated 


First,  let 
the  rail- 
roads 
abolish 
favors 


74 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


Bi 


^11 


'i( 


CHAP.  II. 

How 
problems 
lose  their 
urgency 


The  way 
of  relief 


The  hope- 
ful view- 
point 


monopoly  in  Ireland  seemed  frightfully  urgent; 
but  it  is  now  working  itself  out  on  just  and  wise 
lines  with  everybody's  rights  fairly  observed,  and 
with  new  methtids  of  farming,  and  of  coopera- 
tion in  country  life,  now  promising  at  an  early  day 
to  transform  completely  the  Irish  peasantry.  It 
all  began  with  laws  to  regulate  the  rent  system, 
and  to  mitigate  the  evils  of  absentee  land- 
lordism. 

In  like  manner  we  shall  in  due  time  work 
out  the  problems  involved  in  the  overweening 
control  of  railway  and  industrial  capital  by  a 
few  people.  And  as  Ireland's  regeneration  began 
with  laws  to  secure  a  fair  land  system,  so  our 
relief  from  some  of  the  evils  and  dangers  of  mo- 
nopoly and  concentrated  wealth  power  will  come 
with  laws  —  national  and  state  —  to  secure  a 
reasonable  and  impartial  use  of  the  means  of 
transportation. 

We  are  in  the  very  thick  of  newspaper  sensa- 
tions and  industrial  and  political  turmoil  just 
now,  because  these  evils  of  wealth  control  and 
of  corporate  management  have  been  coming  into 
the  light  as  never  before.  But  it  is  not  the  time 
for  a  depressed  view  of  American  life  and  affairs. 
Exposure  and  criticism  had  to  precede  thorough- 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


75 


going  relief.     And  it  is  not  when  evils  are  in      chap.  ii. 

process  of  remedy  that  there  is  most  ground  for 

discouragement,    though    the    process    may    be 

highly  disturbing  and  painful  while  it  lasts. 

When  real  emergencies  come,  the  people  of  the   The  task 

United  States  are  usually  right-minded  and  effi-  ''■^^'"'' 

,  ernment 

cient.     The    important    task    before    them    now 

indicates  nothing  else  so  much  as  it  does  a  whole- 
some growth  and  progress.  The  body  politic 
has  vigor  and  health.  Therefore  it  throws  off 
what  would  otherwise  bring  decay. 

The  use  by  the  federal  government  of  the 
power  to  regulate  interstate  commerce,  and  by 
the  states  of  their  power  over  common  carriers 
and  chartered  corporations,  was  never  so  necessary 
as  now,  and  the  railroads  will  not  be  the  least  of 
those  benefited. 

For  the  most  part,  the  railroads  came  into  being 

as  a  part  of  the  means  for  opening  up  a  new 

country;    and  our  conditions  created  a  race  of  The 

men  with  whom  individual  and  private  initiative  *"*"  "-^ 

,  .  great  iniiia- 

was  stronger  than  anywhere  else  at  any  time  in  th-e 

the  world's  history.     A  great  part  of  the  railroad 

mileage  of  the  country  was  built  in  advance  of 

actual  needs,  and  the  population  and  wealth  of 

regions  traversed  by  the  new  lines  had  to  grow  up, 


MICtOCOrV  RBOIUTION  TBT  CHA«T 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


/APPLIED    \M/V3E      Ir 

I6S3  Totl   Main   StrHl 

RochMltr,   N*<r   lark        US09       USA 

(716)   ♦82  -  OJOO  -  Ption. 

CU)  288  -  S98«  -  Fo, 


76 


II 


li 


CHAP.  II. 


Grounng 
up  to  the 
railroads 


At  length, 
the  new 
conception 
of  a  riper 
period 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

in  order  to  give  solid  value  to  the  transportation 
properties. 

It  was  customary  to  look  upon  railroads  not 
merely  as  private  enterprises,  but  to  regard  them 
as  of  a  highly  speculative  and  extra-hazardous 
nature,  in  which  investors  risked  much  on  the 
chance  of  final  rewards  of  a  corresponding  mag- 
nitude. Most  of  the  roads,  as  I  have  already 
intimated,  went  into  bankruptcy  sooner  or  later, 
and  some  of  them  passed  through  more  than  one 
period  of  receivership  and  reorganization.  As 
the  country  matured,  railroad  property  became 
more  stable,  until  finally  the  great  systems  were 
well  beyond  danger  of  serious  financial  reverse. 
Business  interests  all  along  the  lines  became  di- 
versified, and  it  was  no  longer  necessary  for  the 
railroads  to  secure  traffic  by  favoring  and  build- 
ing up  special  or  particular  interests. 

The  time  came  when  there  emerged  the  clear 
conception  of  the  railroad  as  a  great  necessary 
pubHc  servant,  with  all  tho  obligations  of  a  com- 
mon carrier,  and  with  no  right,  therefore,  to  dis- 
criminate for  or  against  any  of  those  whose  busi- 
ness re<juired  them  to  make  use  of  the  public 
highway.  The  whole  thing  has  come  about  by 
way  of  evolution  from  transient,  speculative,  im- 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


77 


CHAP.  n. 


ment  would 


mature  conditions  to  those  of  a  riper  period  of 
industrial  life  and  civilization. 

Yet  abuses,  even  when  naturally  outgrown,  are 
often  hard  to  destroy.  For  even  as  the  tree  grows 
great,  so  also  will  the  entwining  parasite  some- 
times have  a  stronger  clutch.  And  many  of  the 
favored  industries  built  up  on  special  transporta- 
tion favors  have  been  in  a  position  powerful  enough  Adjust- 
to  make  it  difficult  for  particular  railroad  corpora- 

'■  have  come, 

tions  to  rehnquish  the  rebates  or  the  other  forms  of  itself 

of  favoritism.  It  is  probably  true,  however,  that 
the  very  growth  of  business  conditions  would 
sooner  or  later  have  compelled  the  railroads  to 
cease  discrimination  and  treat  all  comers  fairly, 
even  if  there  had  been  no  interstate  commerce 
legislation. 
However  that  may  be,  the  government's  power  Timelineaa 

to  regulate  interstate  commerce  is  a  chief  correct-  ''•^""' 

railway 
mg  agency  at  the  present  time ;  and  it  is  helping  reforms 

the  railroads  and  the  shippers  to  readjust  rela- 
tions on  a  fair  and  proper  modern  basis. 

The  railway  reforms,  now  coming  about  through 
government  action  on  the  one  hand  and  evolution 
of  business  conditions  on  the  other,  are  especially 
timely  for  two  reasons.  First,  they  will  save  us 
from  a  premature  agitation  of  the  demand  for 


r 

;           78 

1 

ll                                                CHAP.  II. 

A 
I 

'i 

*'                                   The  alter- 

natives 

End  of  the 

pioneer 

epoch 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

the  government  ownership  and  operation  of 
railroads;  and  seoond,  they  will  encourage  thou- 
sands of  energetic  men  to  use  their  brains,  and 
such  capital  as  they  can  enlist,  in  new  efforts  for 
wealth  production. 

We  had  reached  the  limit  under  tho  old  system. 
Railroads  had  to  be  emancipated,  for  the  further 
rapid  progress  of  the  country  in  its  varied  business 
life.  And  if  at  Washington  reform  had  been 
successfully  obstructed,  then  the  fight  for  govern- 
mental administr.ation  of  the  railway  network 
would  have  come  on  in  dead  earnest,  with  our 
political  conditions  very  poorly  adapted  to  such  a 
tremendous  increase  of  public  functions.  It  is 
this  that  gives  the  underlying  significance  to  the 
recent  struggles  at  Washington  for  new  railroad 
legislation. 

The  disappearing  methods  grew  up  with  the 
rude  forces  of  the  pioneering  epoch  that  created 
the  new  West  beyond  the  Mississippi  after  the 
Civil  War,  that  built  up  the  manufactures  of  the 
East  under  the  forcing  processes  of  a  high  tariff, 
and  that  deserve  credit  for  some  of  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  New  South.  But  the  pioneering 
cpm'h,  as  I  have  occasion  to  show  at  length  in 
another  chapter  is  practically  complete  for  the 


I 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


79 


1 


3 
■ 


United  States ;  and  we  have  to  deal  henceforth       chap.  ii. 
with  the  problems  of  a  mature  country.     By  this 
I  do  not  mean  a  finished  country,  but  a  country 
ripe  for  a  second  period  of  intensive  and  complex 
development. 

Success  is  no  longer  waiting  toward  the  sunset.    The 
There  is  no  West  or  East,  or  North  or  South,   "J'"'^'^^" 

has  dis- 
where  the  young  man  can  go  in  order  to  find  appeared 

prosperity  assured,  by  merely  identifying  him- 
self with  the  growing  country.  But  just  as  fruit 
farm-ng  succeeded  wheat  lands  in  California, 
where  the  wh^at  fields  in  turn  had  followed 
grazing,  —  so  in  every  part  of  the  country  there 
is  great  opportunity  for  those  prepared  to  see 
how  radical  are  the  possibilities  of  progress  in 
any  given  neighborhood. 

Untold  resources  of  wealth  —  not  for  the  multi- 
millionaire alone,  but  chiefly  for  the  community 
at  large  — are  awaiting  the  further  progress 
even  of  our  older  states.  Before  our  hard- 
wood forests  of  the  mountain  slopes  arc  all  con- 
verted into  articles  of  utility,  we  will  have  learned 
how  to  maintain  them  in  perjx^tuity  through  the 
methods  of  modern  forestry.  And  we  will  have 
learned  how  private  business  enterprise,  scientific 
instruction    in  our    higher    institutions,  and  the 


Conserving 

natural 

resources 


\  i 


!      I 


80 


CHAP.  II. 


The 
forests 


The  soil 


The  new 
educcUion 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

fostering  care  of  state  and  national  governments, 
can  all  work  together  in  harmony  to  secure  the 
best  and  most  lasting  economic  advantages  from 
a  great  natural  resource  like  the  forests. 

So  much  for  an  illustration.  The  earlier 
epoch  slashed  the  forests  away  in  frantic  haste 
for  the  sake  of  immediate  private  wealth. 
Scientific  forestry  belongs  to  the  new  period, 
in  which  public  and  private  interests  alike 
require  that  forests  be  used  without  being 
destroyed. 

Take  another  example:  the  old  method  of 
farming  cropped  the  soil,  regardless  of  its  ex- 
haustion; the  new  agriculture  will  restore  worn- 
out  lands,  find  new  crops,  and  secure  results 
tenfold  greater  than  those  of  the  discarded,  primi- 
tive modes  of  farming. 

Education  and  economic  advance  will  go  hand 
in  hand.  And  the  new  sort  of  education  will 
especially  qualify  the  coming  generation  for  new 
and  unanticipated  results  in  the  effort  to  improve 
material  conditions.  For  every  one  concedes 
that  men  must  work,  to  gain  food  and  shelter 
and  leisure,  and  the  means  for  a  higher  life.  And 
with  what  we  know  and  see  about  us,  it  would 
be  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  coming  men  are 


I 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


81 


CHAP.  II. 


not  to  work  under  better  advantages  and  with 

far  better  results  than  their  predecessors. 

They  will  develop  your  mineral  wealth  to  an  What  the 

extent   that   would    now   seem   fabulous.     They  "'^'"?/"^.„ 

•'    men     will 

will    harness   your   waterfalls,     transmute    your  accomplish 

coal  deposits,  and  multiply  the  applications  of 

electricity;    they  will  equalize  the  advantages  of 

country  living  and  city  living  and  minimize  the 

disadvantages  of  both,  for  they  will  suburbanize 

or  countrify  the  cities,  and  give  all  sorts  of  social 

advantages  to  factory  workers,   while   reducing 

the  isolation  and  hardship  of  country  life  in  many 

ways,  some  of  which  are  already  well  begun. 

With    the    needful    development    of    private   The  needs 

wealth,  there  can  also  be  vast  enhancement  of  "-^'^^ 

state 
the   public   income.     And   the   state   will   need 

ever-increasing  revenues  in  order  to  maintain 
the  progressive  standards  of  a  more  exacting 
civilization.  Thus,  the  state  provides  schools, 
but  the  schools  of  the  future  must  be  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  past  and  the  present. 

In  the  state  of  New  York,  the  best  school  at  A  New 

present  for  a  workingman's  son  is  at  Elmira.     It   l*"^^  "*" 
I  °  stance 

is  a  great  boarding  school  with  every  kind  of 
facility,  and  it  gives  free  board,  lodging,  and  in- 
struction.    It    affords    splendid    physical    disci- 


82 


I 


CHAP.  II. 


Training 

for 

convicts 


Gix'C  the 
honest  boy 
a  like 
chance 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

pHne,  gives  as  good  military  drill  as  West  Point, 
provides  proper  mental  and  moral  training,  and 
teaches  every  young  man  a  good  practical  trade 
to  the  point  of  high  efficiency.  It  accommodates 
perhaps  1200  young  men.  Unfortunately,  the 
state  gives  this  admirable  opportunity  for  fitness 
to  enter  the  modern  world  of  work  only  to  young 
men  whose  credentials  are :  the  proved  commis- 
sion of  a  felonious  crime.  The  uneducated  son 
of  a  workingman  who  will  break  a  plate-glass 
window  and  take  a  watch,  may  hope  to  go  to  the 
Elmira  State  Reformatory  Prison,  whence,  after 
two  or  three  years,  he  will  emerge,  —  stigmatized, 
indeed,  as  a  convict,  —  but  well  trained  for  prac- 
tical life,  with  strong  physique,  just  ideas  of  public 
and  private  conduct,  and  the  mastery  of  a  profit- 
able trade  or  handicraft. 

Now,  for  many  years,  it  has  been  clear  to  my 
mind  that  what  the  state  of  New  York  does  for 
thousands  of  youths  who  have  violated  the  penal 
code,  it  must  some  day  do  for  the  honest  lad 
whose  father  cannot  provide  such  opportunities 
for  him.  We  have  adopted  the  principle  that  the 
state  is  to  instruct  and  train  the  young.  Let 
us  not  shrink  from  the  full  application  of  that 
principle.     What  the  state  ^   ^s  for  young  crimi- 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


83 


nals,  for  the  blind,  or  for  the  deaf  mutes,  and      chap.  ii. 

what  tlie  national  government    docs    for   young 

Indians  in  its  gre^t  industrial  schools,  we  should 

expect  to  find  equaled,  at  least,  in  provisions  made 

sooner  or  later  for  the  sons  and  daughters  of  all 

the  people.     And  this  will  require  a  development   It  will 

of  public,  and  therefore  of   private,  wealth   far  '■^9"*'"® 

public 
greater   than   we    have   yet   attained.     But   the  wealth 

wealth  invested  in  such  training  of  the  young 
will  be  returned  many  times  over  in  the  results 
of  their  increased  efficiency  as  producers. 

We  do  not  need  to  invoke  new  principles.  We  The  old 
must  simply  extend  and  improve  the  application  of  ^j»  l'^^^" 
the  principles  already  acknowledged.  We  must 
find  the  true  balance  between  public  author- 
ity and  private  enterprise.  We  may  find  some 
things  that  the  state  can  do  for  all  of  us  better 
than  we  can  do  them  for  ourselves;  but  we  are 
not  going  to  industrialize  government  in  our  day, 
and  we  need  not  fear  to  use  government  to  the 
full,  where  it  has  proper  place  for  use.  The 
state  will  not  run  our  factories,  but  it  will  protect 
society  from  some  of  the  dangers  of  unregulated 
competition  among  private  factory  operators. 
Thus,  it  may  enforce  sanitary  conditions  and 
have  some  rules  to  give  as  to  hours  of  labor. 


r 


': 


^ 


ii 


84 


CHAP.  II. 


Socialism 
as  a 
doubtful 
remedy 


Govern- 
ment 
and  its 
relation  to 
health 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

especially  where  women  and  children  are  con- 
cerned. 

The  author  of  a  popular  novel,  based  upon  a 
realistic  study  of  conditions  in  the  Chicago  stock 
yards  and  packing  houses,  ends  his  book  with 
an  impassioned  plea  for  socialism.  His  remedy 
is  the  control  of  productive  wealth  by  the  govern- 
ment. He  would  put  us  all  in  the  uniform  of 
the  state,  in  order  somehow  to  protect  us  from 
evils  he  discovers  in  the  workings  of  the  present 
economic  system. 

But  the  remedy  he  proposes  is  untried,  while 
the  evils  he  deplores  may  not,  after  all,  prove 
deep-seated,  and  may  yield  with  wonderful 
promptness  to  the  remedies  already  at  hand. 
Thus  in  due  time  the  ancient  Chinese  learned 
(see  Charles  Lamb)  that  they  did  not  always 
have  to  burn  down  the  house  every  time  they 
wanted  a  roast  pig ! 

Let  us  admit  without  hesitation  that  the  care 
of  the  public  health  is  a  necessary  function  of 
government  under  modern  conditions  of  knowl- 
edge regarding  diseases  and  their  spread.  Europe 
is  now  saving  millions  of  lives  of  little  children 
by  public  regulation  of  milk  supply.  PubUc 
health  measures  are  aboHshing  epidemics,  such 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


85 


as  prevailed  forty  years  ago,  whether  of  cholera,      chap.  ii. 

yellow  fever,  smallpox,   typhoid,   or  diphtheria. 

The  individual  cannot  protect  himself  in  these   What 

matters,  and  health  laws  and  administration  are  government 

can  do  well 
a  necessary  application  of  the  police  powers  of 

government.  The  simple  question  is.  Does  gov- 
ernment do  these  things  well?  And  I  answer. 
It  does  them  marvelously  well,  all  things  con- 
sidered. When  it  began  to  do  them,  in  our 
crowded  cities,  the  death  rate  exceeded  the  birth 
rate,  and  human  life  was  cheap  and  miserable. 
Already  the  new  methods  have  greatly  reduced 
the  death  rate  of  all  cities,  and  the  average  lon- 
gevity has  increased  remarkably. 

From  time  to  time  new  facts  and  instances 
will  come  to  light  to  show  that  public  regulation 
in  the  interests  of  health  must  occupy  itself  with 
some  fresh  case  or  in  some  unexpected  direction. 
Thus  governments,  local  or  general,  can  inspect 
food  supply  just  as  they  can  institute  quarantines 
and  provide  epidemic  hospitals  in  case  of  infec- 
tious disease. 

The  test  of  old  principles  lies  in  their  strength   fhe  state 
when  new  needs   arise.     Can   state  supervision  *""''  '«^«' 
protect  the   people's  deposits   in   savings   banks  ^'"*''^*""** 
or  life  insurance  companies,  as  against  private 


|V'  ] 


rt 


:^1 


86 


CHAP.  II. 


Food  Bill 
as  an 
illustration 


Hit 

The  pack- 

^Hi 

ing-house 

question 

^^^tBi^-' 

^^^ij 

^Hlll 

1 

THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

fraud  or  mismanagement  ?  If  so,  we  need  not 
make  haste  to  add  vast  new  financial  functions 
to  our  state  or  national  governments.  Can 
aroused  public  opinion,  supporting  now  laws  for 
government  supervision,  rid  the  packing  industry 
of  the  abuses  about  which  there  has  been  so  much 
sensation  ?  Then  the  remedies  are  at  hand,  and 
there  is  strength  enough  in  our  existing  social 
structure  to  apply  them. 

There  has  been  enacted  into  law  at  Washing- 
ton an  elaborate  measure  which  had  been  long 
pending,  known  as  the  "  Pure  Food  Bill."  This 
grew  out  of  the  conditions  uncer  which  a  great 
variety  of  art'-^les  that  enter  into  the  general  supply 
of  food  and  medicines  are  now  manufactured  on 
a  large  scale  and  distributed  through  the  channels 
of  interstate  commerce.  Our  advance  in  scien- 
tific knowledge  and  our  more  fastidious  .standards 
of  living  require  that  such  food  products  should 
be  honest  from  the  commercial  standpoint  and 
wholesome  from  that  of  sanitary  tests.  It  is  not 
that  matters  are  at  so  bad  a  pass  in  this  country, 
but  that  we  ought  to  expect  positive  improvement. 

In  Europe  the  public  abattoirs  have  done 
away  with  thousands  of  small  slaughterhouses, 
and  the  gain  has  been  almost  incalculable.     With 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


87 


us,  the  great  packing  houses,  with  their  refrigera-  chap.  n. 
tor  car  lines  and  their  cold  storage  plants  every- 
where, have  also  abolished  local  slaughterhouses 
by  the  tens  of  thousands,  —  and  in  spite  of  all 
that  has  ever  been  brought  to  light,  I  assert  that  Sanitary 
the  packing-house  system  is  incalculably  more  P^^^^^^' 
sanitary,  in  the  main,  than  the  old  local  slaughter- 
houses, with  their  supply  of  uninspected  animals 
and  their  total  ignorance  of  the  first  elements  of 
cleanliness  or  health  rules  in  the  methods  they 
employed.  The  small  slaughterhouses,  as  a  vast 
system,  could  hardly  have  been  reformed;  but 
the  large  packing  houses  can  be  made  models  of 
wholesomeness,  with  positive  profit  to  all  branches 
of  industry  concerned  in  providing  the  country's 
food  supply. 

As  respects  the  articles  with  which  the  Pure  Principles 
Food  Bill  is  concerned,  the  commercial  is  more  "-^  ''"'"^ 
important  than  the  health  standpoint.  Oleo- 
margarine  is  not,  as  a  rule,  unhealthy;  but  it  is 
commercially  wrong  to  sell  it  as  butter.  Glucose 
may  be  a  nutritious  food  produce,  but  to  sell 
glucose  for  honey  or  maple  sugar  or  jam,  or  any 
one  of  a  dozen  other  articles,  is  not  defensible. 
Pulverized  cocoanut  shells  taken  in  small  quan- 
tities  are    not    harmful,    yet    they   should    not 


i 


i  I 


'        II  I 


If*  'i' 


88  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  II.  constitute  four  fifths  of  what  the  people  buy  under 
the  name  of  pepper.  The  chicory  and  the  cereals 
which  make  up  the  bulk  of  so  much  of  the  coffee 
that  is  sold  ready  for  use,  do  not  undermine  the 
human  constitution;  yet  they  certainly  do  tend 
Protection  to  undermine  the  legitimate  trade  in  coffee.  The 
trade  government  can  do  a  good  deal  to  stop  these 

dishonest  practices,  for  the  benefit  of  consumers 
on  the  one  hand  and  for  the  protection  and  pros- 
perity of  the  honest  producer  on  the  other. 

Such  are  some  of  the  points  at  which  govern- 
ment touches  the  current  economic  life.  This 
necessary  assertion  of  the  power  of  government 
and  law  only  gives  the  better  chrnce  for  the  proper 
play  of  individual  energy  and  initiative  in  the 
economic  field.  'I'o  my  mind,  the  old,  unre- 
strained forces  of  competition  in  business  were 
wasteful;  and  the  growth  of  comparatively  non- 
competitive methods  had  in  it  place  and  timeli- 
ness. At  one  time  the  competitive  system  seemed 
beyond  remedy  in  its  reckless  misuse  of  economic 
force.  Then  the  trust  system  arose  with  its 
tendency  toward  abuses  of  monopoly  power. 
And  in  turn  the  appeal  of  many  men  is  to  the 
government,  with  a  socialistic  programme,  to 
give  the  final  cure. 


Still 

room  for 
private 
energy 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


89 


But  we  shall  manage  to  keep  place  for  private      chap.  ii. 
initiative  and  a  good  deal  of  competitive  activity  j^g  ^^„g 
in  the  field  of  wealth  production,  while  keeping  line  of 
the  great  corporations,  with  publicity  as  to  their 
methods  and  a  diffused  ownership  of  their  shares 
of  stock.     At  the  same  time  we  shall  use  govern- 
mental   authoiity    freely    to    regulate    economic 
forces,  and  we  shall  aim  to  make  government 
so  clean  and  efficient  that  we  might,  if  necessary 
in  the  future,  intrust  it  with  enlarged  business 
functions. 

Some  of  us  can  readily  remember  a  time  when  Municipal 
the  very  conception  of  a  public  franchise  as  a  /'■"'»'^*"«« 
valuable  municipal  asset  was  a  strange  and  un- 
familiar one  to  our  citizens.  Municipal  govern- 
ments would  from  time  to  time  give  away  long- 
term  monopoly  privileges  to  gas  companies, 
street  railroad  companies,  electric  light  companies 
and  so  on,  without  any  serious  criticism  directed 
against  them,  and  with  apparently  no  appreciation 
on  the  part  of  any  citizen  that  private  wealth 
was  being  built  up  at  the  public  cost  and  disad- 
vantage. Here,  again,  we  have  come  to  see  a 
new  light,  and  we  see  it  clearly. 

We  do  not  as  yet  manage  these  things  perfectly 
in  our  cities  and   towns,  but  the   old  days  of 


{ 


%-A 


i;  '( 


i  1- 


)       liS 


V  r 


90 


CHAP.  II. 


A  system 
to  be 
reformed 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

wanton  disregard  of  the  public  right  and  the 
general  welfare  are  gone  forever.  It  is  one  thing 
to  protect  private  initiative  in  business  aflFairs, 
and  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  permit  or  foster 
abuses  that  enrich  one  man  or  set  of  men  at  the 
expense  of  the  community. 

My  point  is  that  the  chief  fault  has  belonged, 
not  to  the  men  who  have  gained  great  fortunes 
through  the  opportunities  afforded  by  our  economic 
system,  but  to  the   transitional   period  through 
which  we  have  been  living.     And  the  thing  we 
have  now  to  deal  with  is  not  the  great  fortunes 
or  the  men  who  hold  them,  in  so  far  as  their  pos- 
session is  legally  beyond  assault,  but  the  system 
itself,  in  those  parts  of  it  which  have  been  used 
to  the  public  detriment.     The  principles  are  now 
clear,  and  what  we  have  to  do  is  to  apply  them. 
It  is  the  failure  to  see  these  principles,  or  else  the 
failure  to  believe  that  we  can  apply  the  remedies 
that  is  driving  men   to  the    socialistic   extreme. 
The  course  of  recen*  events  would  seem  to  prove 
the  opposite  of  the  scx-ialistic  argument  and  to 
show  that  we  have  ample  capacity  for  economic 
reform  along  the  line  of  well-established  doctrines. 
I  have  not  sought  to  extol  wealth  or  economic 
force  in  any  materialistic  spirit.     Back  of  all  effi- 


PRESENT  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


91 


cient  human  effort  lie  character  and  the  belief  in  chap.  n. 
things  of  the  mind  and  spirit.  But  I  have  tried 
to  set  forth  some  of  the  conditions  under  which 
the  young  men  of  to-day  must  do  their  work  for 
the  further  promotion  of  our  best  civilization. 
I  would  have  the  business  man  professionalize  The  true 
his  calling  by  understanding  how  serious  are  his  If"^! 
responsibilities  in  what  is  preeminently  the  busi- 
ness man's  age.  Work  done  in  the  right  spirit, 
with  science  and  knowledge  to  guide  it,  and  witli 
a  sincere  desire  for  the  public  welfare,  can  be 
made  of  absorbing  interest.  And  it  matters, 
therefore,  comparatively  little  what  particular 
pursuit  a  young  man  chooses  in  life,  if  only  he 
makes  honest  effort,  and  tries  to  give  the  best 
that  is  in  him  to  the  service  of  his  own  day  and 
generation. 

In  our  great  Southern  states,  we  have  many  The 
difficulties  and  perplexities  to  face  in  the  onward  ''^"^^^'■'"'J'- 

'      '  port  unity 

course  of  our  social  and  political  life.       But  we 

can  make  no  mistake  in  turning  our  best  energies 
to  the  development  of  oiir  vast  Intent  resources, 
as  a  foundation  for  the  great  structure  of  civili- 
zation we  mean  to  build  in  that  beautiful  and 
highly  favored  portion  of  the  earth.  With  their 
own  trained  men,  and  their  own  capital,  they  must 


1/ 


h 


'1  i 

i'i:     l\ 


it'    ' 


i    ti 


92 


CHAP.  n. 


The 

xuiderlying 

ideals 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

work  out  amazing  transformations  along  the 
line  of  many  things  already  begun.  WTien  the 
capital  II  ciied  in  farms  and  mines  and  furnaces 
and  factories  begins  to  yield  the  returns  we  may 
confidently  expect,  let  us  not  forget  that  capital 
invested  in  education  is  the  most  important  of  all, 
because  it  produces  the  trained  minds  and  scien- 
tific aptitudes  necessary  for  further  progress. 

Furthermore,  there  can  be  no  great  progress  in 
purely  economic  directions  without  high  ideals 
to  inspire  effort  and  high  motives  looking  toward 
the  use  of  economic  results. 


»  £« 


|) 


OUR  LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF 
PIONEERS 


1 


t 


I 


0 

f      I 

1  [: 

:     V 


t* 


j 


CHAPTER  III 

OUR  LEGACY  FROM  A   CENTURY  OF 
PIONEERS 

Certain  aspects  of  our  American  life  and 
society,  that  are  to  be  considered  in  the  pages 
that  follow,  should  remind  us  of  the  fact  that  we 
are  now  a  mature  country.  This  may  not  seem  A  mature 
a  novel  suggestion,  yet  the  bearings  of  it  have  '^''""  '^^ 
scarcely  been  recognized  by  any  element  or  group 
of  our  leaders  in  opinion  or  in  statecraft.  We  have 
been  so  long  accustomed  to  regard  ourselves  as  a 
young  country  and  a  pioneering  country,  that 
we  have  not  attained  unto  the  recognition,  as  a 
matter  of  national  consciousness,  of  the  meaning 
in  a  synthetic,  full  way  of  a  great  number  of  facts 
which  we  recognize  in  their  separate  aspects. 

Every  one  knows,  for  example,  that  we  now  Our 

make  far  more  products  of  iron  and  steel  each  P'"*'"'*'^/ 
•^  m  certain 

year  than  any  other  nation ;  that  our  agricultural  things 

output  is  more  extensive  than  that  of  other  lands ; 

that  the  mileage  of  our  railroads  far  exceeds  that 

95 


ll  i 


hr 


■^. 


I 


h  t 


'ill 


^  ■ 

■  ■    V- 


^1  i 


96 


CHAP.  in. 


Meaning 
of  the 
transition 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

of  any  European  country;  that  our  population  is 
larger  than  that  of  any  other  nation  of  white 
men  excepting  Russia;  that  our  educational 
system  is  more  extensive  and  widely  diffused 
than  that  of  any  other  large  nation,  and  that  in 
many  material  regards,  and  in  some  intellectual 
and  moral  aspects,  ours  appears  to  be  the  most 
highly  favored  of  modern  countries. 

These  things,  indeed,  might  all  be  true;  and 
yet  such  might  be  our  extent  of  area  and  of  unde- 
veloped resources,  and  such  might  be  many  other 
practical  conditions,  that  it  could  still  be  said  that 
we  were,  relatively  speaking,  in  the  pioneering 
stage  of  our  progress  and  our  civilization.  And 
here  let  me  say  that  I  do  not  for  a  moment  mean 
to  imply  that  the  relative  maturity  which  I  aflRrm 
is  in  any  manner  to  be  thought  of  as  a  stagnant  or 
passive  or  unchanging  condition,  —  for  just  the 
contrary  of  this  is  what  I  think  to  be  true. 

The  stages  of  development  upon  which  wc 
have  now  entered  in  our  mature  national  period 
are  more  complex  and  more  profound  than  those 
of  the  pioneering  epoch,  and  they  involve  a  higher 
degree  of  activity  in  every  sense  of  the  word. 
It  would  be  inaccurate,  and  therefore  useless,  to 
fix  any  exact  date  as  marking  the  transition  from 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


97 


CHAP.  III. 


' 


-# 


one  period  to  another  in  the  history  of  civilization 

in  any  country  whatsoever.     We  may  say,  if  we  The  fixing 

choose,  that  our  pioneer  period  ended  with  the  of  our 

Spanish   War,   or  with  the   nineteenth  century,  periods 

There  are  lotaHties,  assuredly,  in  which  it  has  not 

yet  come  to  its  end.     But  I  am  speaking  in  broad 

and  general  terms.    The  colonizing  period  had 

begun  with  the  first  settlements,  that  of  Virginia 

about  three  hundred  years  ago,  of  Massachusetts 

a  little  later,  and  of  North  Carolina  in  a  scattered 

fashion  along  its  tidewater  frontage  at  a  time 

almost  as  early.     This  colonial  period  we  regard 

conveniently  as  having  ended  with  the  attainment 

of  independence  by  the  colonies  and  their  federal 

union. 

So  slight  had  been  the  westward  movement.  The 
before  the  Revolutionary  War,  of  the  pathfinders 
and  wilderness  hunters  like  Daniel  Boone,  tJiat 
the  exceptions  only  mark  the  main  fact  that  it 
was  not  until  well  after  the  war  that  what  we  may 
call  the  pioneering  period  had  fairly  set  in.  Almost 
the  entire  population  of  the  United  States  in  the 
Colonial  and  Revolutionary  period  dwelt  within 
easy  access  to  the  seaboard  or  to  tidal  streams. 
It  was  after  that  period  that  the  movement 
toward  the  West  took  on  so  great  a  volume  and 


Colonial 
epoch 


I 
1 


:i 


f 

ill 


* 


I 


IS'    I    ^ 


98 


CHAP.  III. 


The 

century  of 
pioneering 


The 

westward 
spread 
of  the 
American 
family 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

so  remarkable  a  character  from  the  standpoint 
of  American  history  and  of  the  making  of  our 
national  life. 

If  you  would  know  your  own  country  in  its 
most  essential  things,  you  must  study  the  move- 
ment by  which  the  descendants  of  our  old,  origi- 
nal commonwealths  spread  themselves  across  the 
continent  through  a  period  of  a  hundred  years 
or  more,  beginning,  let  us  say,  about  1785.     Ken- 
tucky was  admitted  to  the  Union  in  1792,  Ten- 
nessee in   1796,  and   Ohio  in   1803.      Northern 
New  England,  western  New  York,  western  Penn- 
sylvania, and  the  western  valleys  of  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina  were  undergoing  pioneer  develop- 
ment in  this  same  period.     Indiana  and  Illinois 
in  the  North,  and  Mississippi  and  Alabama  in 
the  South,  came  into  the  Union  in  the  period 
from  1816  to  1819,  then  Maine  followed  in  1820, 
and   Missouri   in    1821.     Louisiana,  meanwhile, 
had  been  brought  into  the  Union  in  1812  under 
obligations  incurred  in  the  purchase  from  France 
of  the  great  central  tract  of  the  country.     These 
are  familiar  dates,  and  I  mention  them  only  as 
incidental  to  the  endeavor  to  impress  upon  your 
minds  the  mar^•elous  spread  of  the  American  fam- 
ily away  from  the  seaboard  to  the  Appalachian 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


99 


•i 


' 


valleys  and  through  the  mountain  gaps  to  the     chap.  iii. 
great  timber  lands  of  Kentucky,  Ohio,  and  Indi- 
ana, and  to  the  warm  alluvial  soils  of  Alabama 
and    Mississippi.     These    men   and    women    not 
only    founded    new    communities    beyond    their 
home  states,  and  so  brought  new  states  into  the  Making 
Union,  but  they  also  developed  the  interior  and   7T 
western  parts  of   the   states  which   formed   the 
original  group. 

While  this  first  great  Western  movement  w»s 
mostly  made  up  of  Revolutionary  soldiers,  or  the 
descendants  of  those  who  had  belonged  to  the 
American  colonial  period  'pre  also  came  a  wel- 
come and  important  st  m  —  though  not  a 
vast  one  —  of  men  from  the  British  Isles,  includ- 
ing the  Scotch-Irish,  who  have  played  so  impor- 
tant a  part  in  the  making  of  the  Appal  ichian 
region  and  the  states  contiguous  to  it.  And  the 
pioneers  might  be  said  fairly  to  have  laid  a  domi- 
nating hand  upon  the  affairs  of  the  whole  country, 
when  Andrew  Jackson  had  become  President,  or  The 
certainly  after  we  had  fought  the  Mexican  War,  •^.'^^■«''«'«« 

°  times 

and  had  brought  Missouri,  Arkansas,  and  Michi- 
gan into  the  Union,  with  Iowa  and  Wisconsin 
following  Texas.  The  admission  of  most  of  these 
states  came  in  a  very  early  stage  of  their  settle- 


i 


V' 


i:    II 
1 


II 


1.1 


>    '' 


•  f; 


i  1  I 


"i  (I 


II I 


100 


CHAP.  ni. 


Up  to  the 
Civil  iVar 


Subduing 
the  wilder 
ness  — 
1790  to 
1850 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

ment,  and  the  pioneer  process  of  felling  the  for- 
ests, creating  farmsteads,  building  roads  and 
towns,  and  establishing  institutions,  was  still  very 
far  from  complete  when  the  era  of  railroad  build- 
ing had  begun  and  when  there  was  reached  in 
our  history  the  momentous  period  of   the  great 

Civil   War. 

Let  me  say  a  few  words  about  the  pioneers  who 
had  made  the  country  as  it  was  before  1860,  and 
then  something  about  that  amazing  outburst  of 
energy  —  transmuted  into  material  progress  — 
that  exhibited  itself  through  the  thirty  or  forty 
years  after  the  North  and  South  laid  down  their 
arms  and  gave  themselves  once  more  to  the  task 
of  making  the  country  great. 

In  all  history  we  can  discover  t^e  records  of  no 
better  or  braver  people  than  the  men  ana  women 
who   subdued   the   American   wilderness   ni  the 
period  from  1790  to  1850.    They  prepared  it  to 
be  the  home  of  millions  of  people  speaking  the 
same  language  and  possessing  the  same  kind  of 
civilization,  and  they  left  to  America  a  noble 
heritage  of  hope,  courage,  and  faith.     Our  ances- 
tors  beyond   the   sea,    whether   from    England, 
Scotland,  Ireland,  Wales,  Germany,  or  whatever 
other  European  land,  may  have  been  of  humble 


LEGACY  FR(  -M  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


101 


origin,  or  they  may  have  been  of  educated  or     chap.  hi. 
even    of    aristocratic    lineage.     We    are    willin*' 
indeed  to  know  anything  about  them  that  we 
can  find  out. 

But,  after  all,   for  Americans   it   will  always  The 
suffice  to  trace  their  ancestry  back  to  the  earliest  ^'"«'"'^«'» 
of  their  forefathers  who  crossed  the  seas  and  cast      "^°^* 
in  their  lot  with  the  makers  of  this  new  world. 
Very  many,  perhaps  a  majority,  of  the  English  no- 
bility do  not  record  their  pedigree  for  more  than 
two  or  three  centuries.     We,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  a  great  population  in  this  country  of  men 
and  women  who  can  clearly  trace  their  descent 
from  ancestors  who  had  a  part  in  creating  our 
Eastern  colonies  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

Some  of  these  people,  of  this  lineage  so  credit-   The 
able,  and  for  which  they  are  so  justly  grateful,  ^'Vansion 
still  remain,  as  here  in  North  Carolina,  in  the  'families 
old  seaboard  states.     But  the  vast  majority  of 
them  are  scattered  all  the  way  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  from  the  Great  Lakes 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.     This  again  is  in  itself  a 
fact  familiar  to  you,  yet  have  you  fully  realized 
its  significance?     What  other  country  can  you 
find  that  has  been  made  in  the  same  way,  by  i\ 
spread    of    families    across    a    vast    unoccupit  i 


If 

i 


;i 


f 


i 


1 1 . 


;! 


'■/ 


i 

'J 

f 

)  ■;! 

\'M 

E     11 

( 

1 

! 

t 

1 

!| 

1 

'1 

l! 

^  r 

i 
1 

102 

CHAP.  HI. 


Founders 
of  common- 
wealths 


Personal 

illuatra- 

tiona 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

territory,  in  such  a  manner  that  they  have  never 
lost  their  sense  of  kinship,  and  have  carried  with 
them  all  their  ideas  and  all  that  is  essential  in  the 
institutions  that  grow  out  of  their  associated  life. 

Where  to-day  are  the  sons  of  North  Carolina  ? 
While  the  movements  of  migration  have  been 
mainly  along  parallel  lines  westward,  there  has 
also  been  a  fanlike  radiation;  and  the  sons  of 
North  Carolina,  as  of  Virginia,  have  helped  to 
make  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Alaban.  ,  Mississippi, 
Missouri,  Arkansas,  and  Texas  notably,  while 
they  have  heljK-d  also  in  lesser  degree  to  make 
many  other  states.  And  few  of  them  or  their 
descendants  have  ever  forgotten  the  family  begin- 
nings in  the  old  home  state. 

Thus,  one  of  my  own  great-grandfathers,  as  a 
young  man  after  the  Revolutionary  War,  sold 
his  land  in  North  Carolina  and  crossed  the  moun- 
tains to  Kentucky.  Subsequently  he  made  one 
mo'^  advance  and  passed  over  the  Ohio  River  to 
become  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  settlement  of 
the  Buckeye  state.  To  illustrate  in  this  jxTsonal 
way  the  movement  of  population  in  that  |)eriml. 
Huother  great-grandfather  from  the  line  between 
MaryjjuKl  and  Pennsylvania  passed  down  the 
Ohio  River  and  also  settled  in  Kentucky,  subse- 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


103 


quently  going  in  like  manner  to  Ohio.  At  just  chap,  hi 
that  time  the  mtn  of  eastern  Massachusetts 
were  moving  northward  to  develop  northern 
New  England,  westward  to  northern  and  west- 
ern New  York,  subsequently  to  northern  Ohio, 
and  so  on  across  the  northwestern  states,  where 
New  England  influence  became  so  predominant. 
Of  these  sturdy  people  from  New  England  who 
did  so  much  for  the  making  of  the  country  north  Xorth  and 

of  the  40th  parallel  of  latitude,  the  same  thing  can  \°""'  "{ 
'  ^  the  mh 

be  said  as  of  the  men  of  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  parallel 
Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas  who  developed  the 
country  south  of  the  4()th  parallel.     They  spread 
across    the   country,    recognizing   themselves    as 
belonging  to  one  great  American  family. 

Thus  there  are  some  of  us  whose  own  kith  and  Kinship 
kin  have  so  scattered  and  advanced  in  the  pioneer- 
ing process  that  relatives  in  some  degree  arc 
known  and  recognized  in  perhaps  twenty  states 
of  the  Union,  from  the  Eastern  seaboard  all  the 
way  to  California.  And  this  has  had  to  do,  more 
than  almost  any  other  one  thing,  with  the  solidarity 
of  the  American  people.  We  know  how  brightly 
burned  the  early  lights  of  aspiration  and  intelli- 
gence and  character  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas, 
as  well  as  in  the  Middle  States;    and  we  know 


anil 
nationality 


I 


'I, 


i 


104 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


1. 


f,  «i 


Ik;' 

\^  1 


f  i 


p^ 


CHAP.  in. 


Trans- 
plantation 
of  leaders 


A  com- 
parison 
with 

European 
nations 


that  Tocqueville  spoke  justly  when  he  referred  to 
the  far  shining  of  the  beacon  of  New  England's 
enHghtenment. 

Yet  the  country  became  great  not  by  the  mere 
radiation  of  influence  from  the  older  centers,  hut 
by  the  actual  transplantation  of  the  men  and 
women  who  embodied  the  best  of  our  early  ideals, 
and  who  gave  added  strength  and  vigor  to  what 
was  characteristic  of  America  in  the  hoalthful 
though  often  dangerous  and  painful  ^  periences 
of  the  subduing  of  the  wilderness  and  the  making 
of  new  communities. 

Mark  the  difference  in  this  regard  between 
our  American  population  and  that  of  any  other 
country.  England  is  not  large  in  area,  and  its 
people  are  generally  regarded  as  homogeneous 
in  their  insularity.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
populations  of  the  different  parts  oi  England  are 
scarcely  at  all  acquainted  in  any  other  part.  Thus 
the  Yorkshire  man  would  only  by  the  rarest 
chance  have  a  relative  living  in  Kent  or  Cornwall. 
The  intimacy  between  North  Carolina  and  ^lis- 
souri,  for  example,  is  incomparably  greater  than 
ihat  between  one  part  of  England  and  another 
part.  In  like  manner  the  people  of  the  north  of 
France  know  very  little  of  those  of  the  south  of 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


105 


France,  or  even  of  those  living  in  districts  not  at     chap.  m. 
all  remote.     Exactly  the  same  thing  is  true  of 
Italy  and  Germany,  and  it  is  characteristic  of 
almost    every    other    European    land.     As    com- 
pared with  other  countries,  we  in  America  are  Americana 
literally  a  band  of  brothers,  spread  to  the  number  '^IZhe'rlood 
of  millions  upon  millions  across  a  vast  continent, 
and  our  characteristics  have  been  fo-   led  very 
largely  in  contact  with  the   problems  we  have 
had  to  solve  in  this  transcontinental  march  of 
subjugation. 
All  honor  to  the  strong  men  and  brave  women   The 

who  floated  down  the  rivers    on    flatboats    and   T^^*,, 

of  the  .U(s- 

crossed  the  mountain  ^  .ses  with  ox  teams  and  .si.s.s//,,>i 
Conestoga  wagons.  While  they  were  not  all  equally  ^  ""'^ 
fortunate,  most  of  them  had  the  wisdom  and 
good  judgment  to  build  their  cabins  and  make 
their  abiding  places  where  the  soil  was  rich,  the 
rair^all  equable,  the  climate  wholesome,  and  the 
geographical  situation  certain  to  give  permanence 
and  continuity  to  the  work  of  their  hands.  When 
they  cleared  the  valley  lands,  they  knew  that  the 
conditions  were  such  as  to  give  long  and  abiding 
prosperity  to  their  new  neighborhoods  and  to 
justify  their  descendants  in  remaining  and  in 
keeping  alive  the  nicniorics  and  Inidilions  of  Ihe 


i* 


''}. 


'y 


fh  r- 


'     i! 


106 


CH\P.  HI- 


Tkeir 
traits  and 
ideals 


Life  in  the 
log  cahin 
period 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

pioneers  of  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 

They  were  large-minded  people,  who  from  the 
very  first  were  determined  to  possess  good  churches, 
good  schools,  and  a  home  life  made  the  more 
dignified  and  refined  by  good  houses  and  sub- 
stantial improvements.  They  were  people  of 
high  ideals  and  unbounded  self-respect.  Surely 
Nature  was  lavish  in  her  gifts  to  that  beautiful, 
productive  region  that  lies  west  of  the  AUeghanies 
and  south  of  the  Gre.     Lakes. 

There  are,  indeed,  )ther  fair  and  rich  countries, 
some  of  them  fairer  and  richer  than  this,  that  lie 
desolate  to-day  because  they  have  lacked  the  right 
kind  of  men.  They  have  needed  but  have  not 
found  men  with  brawn  and  brain  and  heart  to 
wrest  wealth  from  the  soil,  to  utiU-e  the  forces 
and  bounties  of  Nature,  and  to  plant  those  seeds 
of  social  life  and  of  religious  and  political  institu- 
tions that  count  for  more,  after  all,  than  fields  of 
waving  corn  and  golden  grain. 

So  much  for  the  two  generations  of  frontiersmen 
who  were  creating  commonwealths  between  the 
AUeghanies  and  the  Mississippi  Kivor  in  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  They  had,  indeed, 
their  peculiarities  and  their  crudities.     Read,  if 


t»-:.rTf 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


107 


you  please,  with  due  amusement,  Mrs.  Trollope's     chap.  hi. 

"  Domestic  Manners  of  the  Americans,"  Dickens's 

"American   Notes"   and   his   "Martin   Chuzzle- 

wit,"    Baldwin's   "Flush   Times   in    Alabama"; 

but  these  pictures  of  pioneer  times  in  the  West  and 

South  tell  only  a  little  part  of  the  story.     It  was 

surpassingly   wonderful,   if  the   full   truth   were 

known,  how  the  best  ideals  of  life  were  cherished, 

maintained,  and  transmitted  in  thousands  of  log 

cabins  west  of  the  Alleghanies. 

Then  came  the  decade  before  the  Civil  War,   The 

of  gathering  political  clouds,  of  financial  disaster,  <''""'"9^ 

of  the  war 
and  of  moral  and  social  reaction.     And  then  the 

great  convulsion  and  struggle,  born  of  a  period 
when  the  harsh  voices  of  passion  and  wrath  were 
too  loud  for  the  gentler  counsels  of  brotherhood 
and  forbearance.  I  have  no  further  word  about 
that  period,  excepting  such  as  relates  to  the  influ- 
ence it  had  upon  the  later  pioneering  develop- 
ment of  the  country. 

The  war  destroyed  vast  resources  and  sacrificed  Masterful- 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  brave  men,  but  it  also  "^*'*, 

atvakened 

awakened    such    masterfulness,    such    power    of  by  the 
achievement,  in  its  survivors  —  and  these  were  '^""^"'^ 
the  great  majority  of  those  who  participated  — 
as  the  world  has  never  seen  and  may  never  again 


!     • 


! 

■]'!• 


Hi 


108 


CHAP.  III. 


Develop- 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

experience.  Remember  that  the  war  was  fought 
on  both  sides  for  the  most  part  by  very  young 
men.  The  colleges  in  the  South  were  closed 
because  the  students  all  went  to  the  war.  I  am 
a  graduate  of  a  Northern  college  that  also  closed 
because  every  student  in  it  went  to  the  front. 
When  the  war  was  ended  there  were  on  both 


mentofper-  ^.^^^  major-generals  who  five  years  before  had 
sonal  force  j      n 

scarcely  entered  upon  the  careers  of  men.     There 

were  in  fact  hundreds  of  men  on  both  sides  who 

had  commanded  brigades  or  full  regiments,  yet 

who  were  at  the  end  of  the  five  years'  struggle 

still  mere  striplings  in  their  twenties.     But  they 

had  seen  such  stern  and  terrible  reality  —  they 

had    faced    danger,    carried    responsibility,    and 

exercised    power    under    such    circumstances  — 

that  they  could  not  by  any  chance  relapse  to  the 

mental  stature  of  ordinary,  inexperienced  men. 

They   must   perforce  do  great   things.     Just   as 

tiie   Revolutiotiary   War  and   the   War  of   1812 

had  built  up  a  generation  of*  masterful  men,  who 

.settled  the  eastern  half  of  tlie  Mississippi  Valley, 

so  the  events  of  the  Civil  War  awakened  in  the 

sons  and  grandsons  of  those  men,  and  of  their 

kinsfolk  of  the  eastern  seaboard  as  well,  a  power 

which  was  bound  to  find  expression  in  some  great 


Our  men 

of  power 
after  the 
war 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


109 


I  -; 


I 


history-making  processes.     If  we  had  been  essen-     chap.  hi. 

tially  a  mihtary  nation,  these  men  might  have 

sought  conquest  to  the  northward  in  view  of  our 

claims  against   England,  and  to  the  southward 

under   pretext   of  the  expulsion  of  French  and 

Austrian  invaders  and  usurpers.     But  the  armies 

were  disbanded,  and  the  million  or  two  of  young 

men  who  had  been  tried  in  the  fiery  furnace  of 

war  set  about  making  careers  for  themselves  in  a 

land  where  swords  were  beaten  into  plowshares. 

Then  followed  for  two  or  three  decades  the  How  they 

great   movement  west   of  the   Mississippi.     The  "P''"''''  "'^ 
"  _  ^^  farther 

men  who  had   fought   in  the  war  turned  their  West 

engineering  and  organizing  and  directive  talent 
to  the  building  of  a  vast  network  of  railways,  to 
the  opening  of  mines,  and  to  the  exploitation  of 
forests.  They  became  the  leaders  in  our  political 
life,  the  captains  of  our  industry,  and  the  Napo- 
leons of  our  finance.  They  brought  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  millions  of  dollars  of  capital  from 
Europe  to  aid  in  the  development  of  the  virgin 
West.  Where  the  prairie  g'-ass  was  growing  and 
the  buffalo  herds  we  e  flourishing,  they  planted 
the  wheat  and  the  corn  and  the  cotton.  They 
found  a  vast  export  market  for  American  grain 
and  fiber  and  meat,  and  the^  built  high,  and  kept 


IT 


,i 

-r 

h 

I 

i 


' 


1 


L.ii 


if 

'■J   '  K  ' 


H      i 

l"        ^i 

ri  * 

It 


ii 


110 

CHAP.  III. 

Their 
industry 
and  their 
politics 


They  built 
the  rail- 
roads 


They  im- 
ported 
foreign 
labor 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

high,  the  protective-tariff  wall  in  order  that  they 
might  create  diversified  manufactures  and  com- 
mercial centers  in  our  own  country  to  consume 
the  food  products  and  raw  materials  of  the  agri- 
cultural West  and  South.  They  were  not  always 
refined  in  their  methods;  their  materialism  was 
crude  and  insatiate;  but  they  did  wonderful 
things  and  they  left  us  many  a  perplexing  legacy 
as  a  result  of  their  eagerness  and  —  sometimes 
—  their  lack  of  scruples.  They  invented  a  new 
way  to  develop  the  Western  country,  pushing  their 
railroads  far  beyond  the  frontier  line,  then  bring- 
ing liie  population  to  settle  upon  the  imperial 
grants  of  land  they  had  obtained  from  the  gov- 
ernment. 

While  our  American  boys  were  pushing  west 
to  occupy  the  rich,  virgin  soil  and  grow  up  with 
the  country,  millions  of  immigrants  were  per- 
suaded to  come  from  Europe,  settle  on  the  land, 
help  build  the  railroads,  work  in  the  mines,  and 
provide  labor  for  the  factory  towns.  To  hasten 
the  development  of  the  Pacific  coast,  Chinese  la- 
borers were  brought  in  by  the  scores  of  thousands. 
And  so  the  great  movement  went  on  until  we 
discovered,  not  so  ong  ago,  that  the  so-called 
Western  frontier  of  Indians  and  cowboys,  and  the 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


111 


thin  edge  of  pioneer  advance,  had  disappeared. 
Whether  by  honest  settlement  or  whether  by 
trickery  and  fraud,  all  of  Uncle  Sam's  good  farm 
lands  had  been  made  over  to  private  owners. 
By  the  force  of  economic  conditions,  farm  lands 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River  had  become  more 
valuable  than  those  of  Ohio  or  western  New  York, 
or  of  Pennsylvania  or  Maryland.  The  new  West 
had  been  built  up  by  money  borrowed  from 
Europe  and  the  Eastern  states.  We  suddenly 
awakened  to  the  fact  that  this  new  West  had 
become  rich  and  had  paid  off  Europe  and  the 
Eastern  states,  and  was  able  not  only  to  capitalize 
its  own  further  development  for  itself  in  the  main, 
but  was  from  time  to  time  sending  money,  '.»y 
way  of  Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  to  New  York  to 
support  the  general  money  market  and  the  opera- 
tions of  so-called  high  finance. 

When  the  West  was  poor  and  struggling  and 
absolutely  dependent  upon  the  railroads,  there 
were  long  and  stubborn  political  agitations  of  an 
agrarian  character,  directed  against  the  tyranny  of 
the  corporations  of  transport  and  supply.  And 
there  were  also  formidable  political  movements 
having  to  do  with  money  and  the  standards  of 
value  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  the  West  was 


CHAP.  Ill, 

They 
abolished 
the  fron- 
tier 


The  new 

West 
achieved 
financial 
indepen- 
dence 


Agrarian 
struggles 


it 


112 

CHAP.  HI. 

How  they 

were 

mitigated 


Personal 
character 
as  result- 
ing from 
pioneering 
conditions 


The  typical 

American 

boy 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

prevalently  a  debtor  region  and  would  not  tolerate 
an  appreciating  standard  of  value.  But  when 
the  West  had  paid  oflF  its  mortgages  and  had 
accumulated  its  own  capital,  these  phases  of  social 
and  political  agitation  belonging  to  the  pioneer 
period  had  a  tendency  to  disappear. 

All  the  conditions  of  American  pioneering  were 
such  as  to  create  a  wonderful  spirit  of  individuality, 
independence,  and  self-direction  in  the  average 
man.     Never  in  the  worid  has  there  been  anything 
to  equal   this  development   of   personality,   and 
this  capacity  for  private  and  individual  initiative. 
And  I  must  dwell  upon  this  point  because  it  is 
at  the  very  root  of  the  problems  that  we  have 
to  deal  with,  —  now  that  we  have  completed  the 
pioneering  stage  and  entered  upon  the  next  stage, 
—  that  of  a  buoyant,  progressi\x  maturity. 

Several  conditions  were  in  conjunction  to  give 
to  Americans  during  the  past  forty  years  immense 
capacity  for  self-direction  and  individual  achieve- 
ment. First,  there  was  the  traditional  spirit 
born  of  early  conditions  and  the  Revolutionary 
contest;  second,  there  was  the  freedom  begotten 
of  contact  with  Nature  on  a  great  scale  in  the 
subduing  of  a  continent.  The  average  American 
boy  had  grown  up  with  a  gun  in  his  hand,  and 


I 
I 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


113 


he  knew  the  woods  and  the  native  animals.     He      chap.  m. 
had   learned  to  swim  his  horse  across  swollen 
rivers,  and  to  face  all  sorts  of  practical  emer- 
gencies.    Furthermore,  he  had  developed  under  Freedom  of 
conditions  of  entire  political  and  family  freedom,  "PVortunity 
and  still  further,  he  had  grown  up  in  a  land 
naturally  bountiful,  where  there  was  ample  incen- 
tive to  effort,  and  where  there  did  not  exist  any 
laws  or  conditions  which   might  dishearten  the 
individual  man  because  tending  to  deprive  him 
of  the  fruits  of  his  labor. 

Furthermore,  although  later  we  carried  on  our  Continental 
industry  and  commerce  under  conditions  of  a  ^''^^  ''■'"^* 
tariff  that  somewhat  discouraged  traffic  with  the 
older  countries  of  Europe,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  we  maintained  absolute  free  trade  among  our- 
selves. Thus,  although  protectionists  as  against 
the  rest  of  the  world,  we  were  free  traders  over 
a  larg-T  contiguous  area  of  developing  country, 
and  were  in  actual  practice  living  under  freer 
conditions  for  the  large  development  of  business, 
than  any  other  people  in  the  world. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  later  pioneer  period  after  How  the 

the  war,  which  built  the  transcontinental  railroads,  ^'■'''" 

.    J     1  .      ,  fortunes 

created  the  agricultural  West,  develofx?d  the  iron  arose 

and  steel   production  and  the  textile  industries, 


m" 


m  ^^ '• 

114 

.-i 

CHAP.  Ill 

1'  S)"^' 

ii  I  ["" 

I'i 

r  ■ 

LI   . 
>  i   ' 


f  f 


Some 
problems 
left  un- 
<^olved 


No  longer 
a  west- 
ward 
migration 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

afforded  such  opportunities  for  the  acquisition  of 
wealth  as  had  never  before  been  known.    Great 
fortunes  began  to  emerge,  because  opportunities 
were    continental    rather    than    parochial.     The 
private   career  in  that   materialistic  age  offered 
induceiu     ts  so  far  beyond  any  that   a  public 
career  could  hold   out  to  ambitious  men,  that 
private    initiative    and    private    interest    became 
dominant.     Governmental    and    public    activity 
and  interest  became  relatively  weak  and  neglected. 
And  so  the  pioneer  period  having  ended,  we 
are  left  with  some  profound  social  and  economic 
problems   which    may   in    their   solving    perplex 
us,  but  which  need  cause  us  no  deep-seated  anxi- 
ety, certainly  no  pessimistic  foreboding.     Let  us 
locli  a;  i  )rae  of  'Jie  conditions  we  find  existing  in 
the  country,  and  some  of  the  tendencies  of  the 
new  period. 

First,  with  respect  to  conditions  of  population: 
The  old  hives  east  of  the  Alleghanies  no  longer 
send  their  sturdy  sons  westward  to  identify  them- 
selves v/ith  new  communities.  The  tendency  has 
become  almost  too  slight  to  be  discernible.  Neither 
are  the  sons  of  the  region  between  the  Alleghanies 
and  the  Mississippi  moving  in  any  strong  stream 
to  make  home  and  fortune  in  the  newer  regions 


I  ! 


i 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 

of  the  West.  "Westward  Ho !"  is  no  longer  the 
cry.  There  is,  indeed,  a  more  discernible  move- 
ment northward  and  southward.  From  a  general 
region  of  which  Iowa  may  be  taken  as  the  center, 
there  is  a  movement  of  young  men  to  the  new 
wheat  lands  of  the  far  Canadian  Northwest,  and 
there  is  a  decided  movement  of  older  men  to  the 
more  genial  climatic  conditions  of  Louisiana  and 
the  Southwest. 

As  for  young  men  who  seek  business  or  profes- 
sional careers  in  cities,  New  York  now  calls  more 
strongly  to  the  ambitious  young  men  of  the  West 
and  South  than  Chicago  or  the  other  Western 
centers  call  to  the  ambitious  young  men  of  the 
East.  In  short,  the  westward  pioneering  and 
developing  trend  of  our  American  population  is 
at  an  end.  Some  reaction  has  set  in,  and  Eastern 
land  that  had  been  neglected  and  had  become 
relatively  cheap  has  a  tendency  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  Western  men.  The  most  marked  change 
in  the  status  of  population,  however,  is  that 
which  has  built  up  the  cities  and  industrial  centers 
at  the  expense  of  the  villages  and  the  country 
communities. 

And  next  to  this,  the  most  marked  change  is 
the  decUne  of  the  old  native  population  in  New 


115 


CHAP.  III. 


Xorth- 
ward  and 
southward 


Xeio  York 
as  a  Mecca 


Revival  of 

Eastern 

farming 


V 


M 

*1  .  • "! 


116 

CHAP.  III. 

Population 
changes  in 
the  East 


'il  ^    ',  ■ 

h              !     t 

i  " 

New  Eng- 

land's 

abandoned 

!  ^   ' 

farms 

They  once 
■pioduced 
i/riat  men 
and 
women 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

England  and  in  other  part.s  of  the  East.  If  it 
were  not,  indeed,  for  the  influx  of  a  %ast  European 
population  to  supply  the  demand  for  labor  caused 
hy  the  falling  off  of  the  native  population,  it 
would  be  seen  that  New  England,  and  some  other 
parts  of  the  country  as  well,  are  not  merely  at  a 
standstill  like  France  in  point  of  population,  but 
arc  declining  to  a  point  threatening  extinction. 

Wealth  and  industry,  indeed,  .served  by  fort>ign- 
born  labor,  seem  in  no  danger  of  declining   in 
New  England.     But  the  decadence  of  once  beau- 
tiful and  famous  villages,  and  the  relapse  to  wil- 
derness conditions  of  what  was  once  a  well-tilled 
country,  are  indeed  pathetic.     Not  long  ago  I  was 
wandering  over  the  rock-ribbed  pastures  of  a  New 
England   state.     At   best     the   thin   covering  of 
soil  seemed  only  a  few  inches  deep.     In  lieu  of 
fences,  the  tiny  fields  were  separatetl  by  massive 
granite  stone  walls,  blasted  and  hewn  out  of  the 
solid  rock,  or  else  heaped  up  with  giant  bowlders 
by  those  Yankees  of  prodigious  industry  a  hun- 
dred years  or  niore  ago.     They  raised  poor  crops, 
those  hardy  farmers,  but  they  planted  churches 
and  schools,  and  they  prmluced  men  and  women. 
These  are  the  real  tests  of  the  greatness  of  a  com- 
munity or  a  state. 


H 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


117 


If  in  the  same  spirit  of  devotion  and  cour 
those  Now  England  pioneers  luid  perchance  made 
their  farms  on  richer  soil,  they  would  have  been 
no  le  the  worse  for  it,  and  the  results  in  a  local 
si'.ise   would   have   been    more  enduring.     They 
Im'A^  up  men  and  women  for  the  glory  of  the 
nation  and  the  peopling  of  prairie  states  yet  un- 
born.    But  in  thousands  of  instances  their  farms, 
so  painfully  redeemed  from  forest  and  from  rock, 
have  now  relapsed  to  a  state  of  wilderness  where 
some  gnarled  old  apple  tree,  in  the  very  thick  of  a 
dense  growth   of  scrub  oak.   birch,  spruce  and 
pin,    reminds   us   that   here   were   once   cleared 
fields  and  orchards,  thrifty  homesteads,  men  who 
plowed  and  women  who  spun,  all  for  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  greatness  of  the  American  name. 

Only  a  hundred  years  ago  —  or  even  seventy- 
five  years  or  fifty  years  ago  — these  were  tidy, 
decent  farms.  To-day  they  are  lost  in  mile  after 
mile  of  tangled  young  forest,  where  the  fo.x  dwells, 
where  the  wild  deer  has  come  back,  and  where 
even  the  wolves  and  panthers  have  reappared. 
Of  course,  within  a  few  niilis  there  are  thriving 
manufacturing  towns,  and  then-  is  progress  along 
other  line;;.  But  these  manufacturing  t«>wns  are 
made  up  of  a  new  and  strange  population  of 


iTQ        CHAP.  III. 


A  picture 
of  prr.<rnt 
conditions 


The 

wilderness 

again 


The  new 
factory 
populationt 


i 


n 


1^ ' 


It 
I 

i  !  4 

1    ;i! 


ti  i 


III" 


''I-  , 


118 

CHAP.  III. 


The 

problems 
of  the 
village 


De^ay 
of  the 
rural 
hamlet 


THE  JUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

polyglot  origin;  and  in  the  lesser  of  the  farmi.ig 
hamlets  there  remain  few,  il  any,  who  would  care 
to  celebrate  the  one  'mndredth  or  the  two  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  neighborhocxl,  or  who 
possess  either  the  knowledge,  the  reverence,  or 
the  personal  interest  to  save  the  tombs  of  the 
stalwart  forefathers  from  neglect. 

With   the   growth    of   the   factory   towns,   the 
decline  of  the  villages  of  New  England  and  other 
parts  of  the  North  and  East  is  a  most  painful 
thi..g  to  consider.     The  life  of  a  village  when  it 
is  stagnant  and  listless,  and  without  the  touch  of 
idealism,  is  about  the  pettiest  and  worst  of  all 
possible  kinds  of  life.     The  city,  even  with  its 
darker  aspects  of  misery  and  vice,  .stimulates  the 
mind  by  its  rush  and  roar,  its  external  activities, 
and  its  ever-changing  sensations  and  novelties. 
But  the  dull,  dead  rustic  hamlet,  where  nobody 
cares  for  anj-thing  or  believes  in  anything  beyond 
the  gratification  of  a  few  sordid,  material  wants, 
is  in  danger  of  sinking  to  a  lower  moral  level  than 
the  slums  of  tl.e  great  towns.     And  quite  in  con- 
trast with  conditions  of  a  half  century  ago  we 
now  find  thousands  of  such  depraved  neighbor- 
hoods where   fair  skies  shine  on  the  scenes  of 
natural  loveliness,  without  seeming  in  the  very 


I  ! 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIO.VFERS 


119 


n  CO     ch  .p.  III. 


least  to  lift  up  the  minds  and  sijuls  of  ruc 

noble  thoughts  and  aspirations. 

Assuredly  we  seem  to  bo  moving  in  a  vicious   Is  it  a 

circle.     For,  first,  the  present  conditions  of  ci.v   "'"''''"^ 

c irclc * ' f 
life  are  not  to  be  sought  as  a  remedy  and  t  refuge 

from  decay  and  demoralization  in  the  country 
districts;  and,  second,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
is  no  such  moral  or  social  health  in  tlie  villages 
and  farm  neighborhoods  as  would  .seem  to  invite 
a  retreat  from  the  urban  centers  r)f  population. 

Nor  would  it  .seem  very  encouraging  to  admit  The  ,1;^- 
the  fact  that  our  own  American  stock  is  increasing  '^" "'"".'/ '"S 
.scarcely  any  if  at  all,  wlule  our  enhanced  economic 
power  as  a  nation  is  deri\cd  from  the  working 
energy  brought  to  us  by  Italians  and  Poles,  Rus- 
sians and  Hungarians,  and  .  ange  j)eoples  from 
many  lands,  with  little  or  no  kinship  to  us  whether 
of  race  or  ideals.  And  in  addition  to  these  con- 
ditions there  are  the  further  problems  of  .opula- 
tion  in  large  parts  of  the  country-,  due  to  the  pres- 
ence of  the  negrf    race.     It  is  not  only  in  the   Toim  and 

Eastern  states  that  the  decline  of  rural  population  ''""'""J 
11  11..  '^'■'/'« 

has  been  marked  and  absolute,  but  the  tendency 

exists  even  beyond  the  Mississippi  Kiver.  where. 

for  example,  in   Iowa  there  has  been  for  many 

years  a  positive  falling  off  in  the  population  of  the 


* 


!|l 


U 


4 


L 


ft'! 
it 

Id:, 
11  \f\ 


120 


CHAP.  III. 


The 

problems 
of  city  and 
country 
life 


Identical 
rather  than 
opposed 


THE  OUTT        iv  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

strictly  country  neighborhoods,  with  a  marked 
increase  in  the  railroad  towns  and  the  larger  cen- 
ters of  population. 

Here,  then,  are  two  sets  of  problems,  pressing 
upon  us  at  the  same  moment.     The  first  of  these 
are  very  urgent:    having  to  do  with  the  way  in 
which  we  must  order  the  life  of  cities  and  towns 
so  that  we  may  minimize  the  evils  of  population 
centers,  while  at  the  same  time  we  derive  a  maxi- 
mum of  benefit  from  the  opportunities  for  social 
welfare   that    are   afforded   where    many   people 
live  and  work  in  the  same  immediate  vicinity. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  have  the  pressing  problem 
of  the  rehabilitation  of  country  life,  so  that  the 
farm  may  be  less  distasteful  and  so  that  the  village 
community  may  be  sweeter  and  happier  in  its  life 
and   less   disadvantaged   in   its   opportunities   as 
compared  with  the  city. 

Fortunately,  these  two  sets  of  problems  do  not 
antagonize  one  another,  and  it  is  better  to  view 
them  as  parts  of  a  larger  whole  than  as  unrelated. 
It  is  not,  then,  the  (jueslion  of  country  life  as 
against  city  life ;  but  in  both  country  and  city  it 
is  a  question  of  the  larger  use  of  modern  oppor- 
tunity, and  the  determined  effort  to  do  away  with 
bad  conditions.     In   a    thousand   ways    the   life 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 

of  the  great  towns  is  actually  becoming  amelio- 
rated ;  and  there  are  now  standards  and  methods 
of  scientific  and  social  progress  that  are  bringing 
about  most  salutary  changes.  Our  cities  were 
once  the  cen  -rs  of  epidemic  disease,  and  the 
death  rate  averaged  higher  than  the  birth  rate. 
This  is  no  longer  the  case,  for  health  administra- 
tion has  practically  stamped  out  epidf^mics,  and 
the  harmful  physical  tendencies  of  thirt)  or  forty 
years  ag(}  are  rapidly  disappearing. 

The  modern  transit  facilities  of  our  towns  and 
cities  are  distributing  the  population  over  sub- 
urban areas,  and  thus  the  city  has  a  tendency  to 
become   countrified;   while   parks   and  libiaries, 
improved   schools,   and   facilities   for   recreation, 
make  the  life  of  the  vvorkingman's  family  a  very 
much  more  comfortable  thing  to-day  in  a  commer- 
cial center  or  factory  town  than   it  was  a  half 
century  ago  or  even  twenty  years  ago.     While  the 
tendency  has  set  in  this  direction,  the  opportu- 
nities for  an  improve  1  life  in  the  towns  have  only 
begun  to  be  realized ;   and  every  educated  young 
man  entering  upon  his  life  career  at  this  time,  it 
seems  to  me,  is  bound  to  acquaint  himself  with 
these  matters  and,  in  so  far  as  it  falls  to  his  lot. 
to  help  bring  about  the  complete  rogi luration  of 


121 


CHAP.  HI. 


Sanitary 
progress 


Improved 

town 

facilities 


Further 

posii- 

bilities 


%\ 


it£l 


'\ 


t 
f  I 


t", 


'  1; 


n 


,,  It' 


1 1  ;f 


122 

CHAP.  III. 


Remedies 
now  at 
hand 


Improving 

country 

schools 


Necessary 
to  increase 
the  taxable 
total 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

the  conditions  of  American  life  in  the  centers  of 
industry  and  trade. 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  of  this  work  is  to  be 
accomplished  by  angry  or  revolutionary  methods, 
and  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  calm,  moilerate 
application  of  remedies  now  undcM-stood  by  men 
of  knowledge  and  skill  in  engineering  or  sanitary 
or  administrative  .science  can  bring  about  the 
desired  consummations. 

When  it  comes  to  the  problems  of  country  life, 
we  find  a  hopeful  process  of  urbanization  going 
on  in  the  rural  districts.     Perhaps  the  greatest 
demand  is  for  good,  modern,  up-to-date,  central- 
ized country  schools,  with  well-trained  teachers 
who  have  a  knack  for  making  school  work  relate 
itself  to  the  lives  of  country  children.     But  in 
order  to  support  such  schools  the  state    school 
fund  will  not  suflBce,  and  there  must  be  ample 
local  taxation.     Yet  if  local  taxation  is  to  provide 
the  proper  facilities  of  schools,  good  roads,  and 
other    neighborhood    conveniences,    there     must 
be  something  to  tax.     Farm  land  must  become 
more  valuable.     It  must  produce  better  and  more 
diversified  crops.     Water  power  must  be  utilized, 
and  manufacturing  must  be  brought  into  the  neigh- 
borhood, where  natural  conditions  make  it  possible. 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 

And  here  let  me  say  that  the  greatest  triumph 
of  the  pioneering  period  in  America  has  been  the 
creation  of  a  great  body  of  capitahzed  wealth. 
This  process  must  go  steadily  forward.  It  is 
true  the  poet  warns  us  against  those  hastening 
ills  which  are  sure  to  prey  upon  a  country  "where 
wealth  accumulates  and  men  decay."  But  in 
modern  times  men  have  been  far  more  likely  to 
decay  under  conditions  of  poverty  than  under 
conditions  of  wealth.  The  great  economic 
achievement  of  the  past  generation  has  been  the 
relative  abolition  of  poverty.  I  take  frank  and 
straightforward  issue  with  those  who  hold  that 
the  accumulation  of  great  fortunes  in  this  country 
has  been  simultaneous  with  the  impoverishment 
of  the  masses. 

Those  great  fortunes  are  merely  in  the  form 
of  tremendous  agencies  for  the  production  and 
distribution  at  low  cost  of  articles  of  common  use 
and  II' -essity.  The  larger  these  accumulations 
of  capital  engaged  in  production,  the  greater  the 
output  and  the  wider  the  diffusion  of  benefits 
throughout  the  whole  mass  of  the  people.  I  do 
not  like  to  see  the  control  of  these  agencies  of 
production  vested  so  largely  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
individuals.     I  deplore  those  lax  and  unregulated 


123 


CHAP.    III. 


Capital 
and  the 
qualities 
of  men 


Lessening 

of 

poverty 


Production 

and 

control 


'I' 


f 


r  f. 


i 


I'M' 


H    if      ^ 

I-/  ■ .  r 


lii' 


124 

CHAP.  III. 


Results 
of  lax 
conditions 


Need  of 
further 
grmvth  of 
capital 


il\      « 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

conditions  of  private  initiative,  during  the  later 
pioneering  epoch  in  this  country,  that  placed  in 
the  hands  of  a  relatively  few  men  the  control  of 
the  railroad  systems,  the  coal,  the  oil,  the  copptr, 
the  iron  and  steel,   and  many  other  important 
products,  processes,  and  industries,  which  engage 
the  toil   of  the  people  and  which   produce  the 
necessities  and  conveniences  that  are  now  making 
most  of  our  people  comfortable  in  their  daily  lives. 
But  although  we  might  have  avoided,   if  we 
had  been  wiser,  so  high  a  concentration  of  private 
control  over  the  instruments  of  production,  we 
have  done  a  very  great  and  beneficent  thing  in  this 
country  in  creating  so  vast  an  amount  of  wealth 
in  capitalized  form.     And  it  is  this  which  is  lift- 
ing our  people  as  a  whole  from  the  degradation  of 
poverty. 

What  we  have  then  to  do,  while  seeking  for 
justice  and  fair  play  in  the  distribution  of  wealth, 
is  to  strive  with  might  and  main  for  the  further 
production  of  wealth  in  order  by  the  same  process 
to  emancipate  such  other  communities  as  yet  re- 
main in  the  hard  clutches  of  poverty.  There  are 
many  such  communities  in  the  mountain  districts 
of  North  Carolina  and  neighboring  states.  Let 
the  water  power  be  utilized  to  turn  the  wheels  of 


I         :l 


ii 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


125 


ing 


factories,  and  let  the  capitalist  be  encouraged  to     chap.  hi. 

come  and  give  employment  to  labor.     In  turn, 

let  the  factories  be  taxed  for  the  support  of  schools. 

Encourage  in  every  possible  way  the  scientific  Outlook 

knowledge  of  agriculture.     There  are  states   in  ■^'"' 
.1  •  •  •  ..,,.,.  farmh 

the  prairie  regions  of  the  Middle  West  where  so 

intense  is  the  interest  in  scientific  agriculture,  and 
so  prosperous  is  the  farming  community,  that 
the  sons  of  physicians  and  lawyers  and  merchants 
in  the  towns  are  now  attending  the  state  agricul- 
tural colleges  and  crowding  the  classes  in  practical 
agriculture,  with  a  view  to  becoming  farmers  of 
the  new  sort  with  a  knowledge  of  soils  and  ferti- 
lizers and  varied  crop  conditions.  In  one  Western 
state,  within  three  or  four  years,  the  work  of  the 
agricultural  college  in  showing  the  farmers  how  The  new 
to  select  their  seed  corn  has  added  perhaps  from 
five  to  ten  dollars  an  acre  to  the  actual  value  of 
all  the  land  of  the  entire  commonwealth. 

We  are  just  at  the  beginning  of  agricultural  Pioneer 
development    in    this    country.     Having   worked  ^^^^^^^9 
over  and  exhausted  our  soil  from  one  ocean  to  the  results 
other,  we  are  going  back  and  learning  the  business 
of  farming  all  over  again,  under  permanent  con- 
ditions.    Across   vast  expanses  of  America   the 
log-cabin  period  still  continues.     A  better  kind 


methods 


>  't 


!»* 


i  m 


:\ 


I 


ii^ 


r„'i 


ifii  ^  ' 


126 


CHAP.  III. 


Lessons 

from 

abroad 


The 

mountain 
people 
of  the 
South 


]'\    i 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

of  country  life  and  a  new  knowledge  of  the  pos- 
sibilities of  agriculture  must  be  made  to  change 
all  this.  There  must  now  come  a  mature  period 
of  positive  rural  prosperity,  following  the  lax  and 
shiftless  days  since  the  first  freshness  of  lie  soil 
was  exhausted  by  the  pioneers  who  made  the 
clearings. 

We  must  be  willing  to  take  lessons  in  agricul- 
ture from  the  thrifty  farmers  of  France,  from  the 
rich  tillers  of  small  holdings  in  Holland  and 
Belgium,  from  those  sturdy  men  who  maintain 
high  intelligence  and  decent  standards  of  life 
in  the  valleys  and  on  the  mountain  slopes  of 
Switzerland.  We  must  find  out  how  Denmark 
has  rehabilitated  its  agricultural  life,  and  the 
remarkable  new  things  the  farmers  are  learning  to 
do  in  Ireland. 

There  is  no  reason  why  several  million  dwellers 
in  the  Appalachian  highlands  of  America  should 
always  remain  poverty-stricken,  antemic,  igno- 
rant, and  of  primitive  manners  and  ways  of  living. 
They  come  of  a  .strong  and  virile  stock,  they 
belong  all  of  them  to  the  early  pioneering  epoch, 
they  are  Americans  with  the  traditions  of  the  past. 
Why  should  they  not  be  great  and  dominant 
Americans  of  the  future  ?     With  education,  their 


fi 


I  il 


t  \ 


'1.1 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 

sons  and  daughters  show  their  good  qualities 
with  an  amazing  responsiveness.  Economic  de- 
velopment is  what  the  Appalachian  districts  need, 
and  all  these  modern  processes  must  find  their 
way  into  the  hills,  capital  must  he  encouraged, 
the  factory  and  the  improved  school  must  stand 
together  as  missionaries  of  social  redemption. 
And  so  this  vast  hill  country  must  become  alive 
with  a  new  hope  and  a  new  prosperity. 

We  live  in  an  economic  age,  and  we  must  not 
be  afraid  of  it.  The  business  career  nowadays  is 
the  dominating  one.  The  lawyer  either  becomes 
a  business  man,  or  becomes  the  adjunct  of  some 
business  or  corporate  organization.  The  engineer, 
the  architect,  the  men  of  various  other  professions' 
are  simply  the  technical  and  special  servants  of 
a  worid  intent  upon  business  achievement.  We 
could  not  make  this  situation  otherwise,  and  we 
ought  to  strive  to  understand  it  and  to  bring  it 
under  proper  control. 

For  the  South  and  West,  I  firmly  believe  that 
tlic  development  of  wealth  is  to  be  regarded 
as  an  urgent,  fundamental  condition  for  the 
nuoting  of  many  other  problems  of  importance. 
I  do  not  for  a  moment  fail  to  see  the  pressing  need 
of  working  for  rules  of  law  and  of  conduct  that 


127 

CHAP.  III. 


They  need 
ecowimic 
oppor- 
tunity 


"  Busi- 
ness" 
dominates 


Funda- 
mental for 
the  South 


m 


"  I 


n 


yf. 


'I't 


m    Ml, 

,1  ;» 


'v:i 


fl  "J' 


128 


CHAP.  III. 


Produce 
first : 
then 
divide 


THE  OUTJ.OOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

will  bring  about  a  more  equitable  distribution  of 
wealth.  But  remember  that  you  have  not  yet 
brought  one  tenth  of  the  possible  re  ults  out  of 
your  soil,  your  mines,  your  forests,  your  water 
power,  your  latent  human  resources  of  inventive- 
ness and  indu.stry. 

Do  not  then  be  too  anxious  about  the  distri- 
bution of  wealth ;    or  at  least  remember  that  we 
are  still  in  a  condition  where,  for  many  of  our 
states  and  communities,  the  development,  rather 
than  the  distribution  of  wealth,  is  still  the  fore- 
most problem.     I  have  never  been  an  apologist 
for  mere  plutocracy,  and  I  ho|>e  1  may  never  shut 
my  eyes  to  any  injustice  in  the  methods  b\  which 
an  individual  or  a  group  of  individua's  may  at 
times  make  unfair  use  of  <apilalis.ic  or  industrial 
power.     But  remember  that  no  railroad  can  grow 
rich  unless  it  serves  a  rich  and  pntsperous  country. 
And    no   industrial    trust    can    cre-ate    its    muUi- 
milUonaires,    exceptin<j;    under    cimditions    which 
also   promote    the    <!! (fusion    of     in    uicalculably 
greater   quantity   of    wealth    amc-sai:    million-    oj 
people. 


;Hra    ''SHW  iirr* 


10 


Democracy  Ours  remains  a  demfx-racy 

requires  ^j^^g  distinctions  of     ;i,n*inv  a*,  -m  (tpwj^oo^  in 

intelU-  ,  i,  • 

gence  the   United   States.       \c   am«t    wr  ^wr    a^  in 


LEGACY  i-ROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


!l 


129 


our  democracy,  and  we  must  remember  that  it  chap.  hi. 
must  continue  to  find  its  support  in  the  wide 
diflFusion  of  character  and  intelligence.  Having 
made  our  states  in  a  pioneer  fashion,  we  must  now 
proceed  to  make  them  all  over  again  on  a  new  and 
a  better  plan,  using  the  instrumentalities  which 
the  pioneer  period  has  placed  in  our  hands.  We 
must  cultivate  the  spirit  of  tolerance  and  modera- 
tion.    We  have  no  need  to  deal  ruthlessly  or  by   Tolerance 

revolutionary    methods    with    anv    of   our   great  °"''/«*'" 

11.  ,•■,■,,  '  discussion 

public  questions.     We  must  be  honest,  diligent. 

faithful,  and  open-minded.  We  must  not  be 
afraid  of  the  fair  discussion  of  any  question  what- 
soever. 

We  cannot  see  clearly  into  the  distant  future,   Things 
btit  we  can  see  many  things  that  it  is  right  to  do  "'"/ '""'' 
in  the  present,  and  we  can  at  least  stand  up  and  done"  "' 
be  counted  on  the  right  side.     Wc  can  fall  in  with 
the  marvelous  new  tendency  for  the  impr.)vement 
of  farming  and  of  the  conditions  of  country  life 
in  every  part  of  America,  and  we  can  at  the  same 
time  give  our  sympathy,  and  so  far  as  possible 
our  aid,  to  every  good  movement  that  brightens 
the  life  of  workers  in  factories  and  dwellers  in 
towns  and  cities. 

We  shall  have  to  make  over  again  in  a  new 


% 


1  1 


mi 
m 


!    i 


i;    t 


i  '  I 


130 

CHAP.  III. 

Culture 
and  labor 


Foreigners 
and  their 
children 


How  to 
preserve 
American 
ideals 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

way  most  of  our  educational  methods,  because 
we  are  educating  the  children  for  conditions  of 
life  so  different  from  those  that  existed  half  a 
century  ago.  We  must  believe  that  culture  and 
labor  may  go  hand  in  hand.  We  must  welcome 
the  idealist,  and  understand  that  no  progress 
could  be  made  but  for  men  and  women  who  see 
visions  of  better  things  and  strive  to  give  their 
visions  practical  reality.  We  must  not  be  afraid 
that  harm  will  come  from  the  lifting  up  of  any 
man  or  woman  or  child,  however  humble. 

We   have  a  great  problem   in   our  Northern 
cities,  caused  by  the  influx  of  more  than  a  million 
foreigners  every  year.     To  read  a  book  like  Upton 
Sinclair's  novel,  "  The  Jungle,"  makes  one  shudder 
with  dread  and  a  sense  of  horror.     But  when  one 
sees  thousands  upon  thousands  of  the  children  of 
these  strange   peoples  in  the  public  schools  of 
New  York  and  Chicago,  knows  their  eager  minds, 
their  quick  grasp  of  American  hi.story  and  their 
enthusiasm  for  American  ideals,  one  learns  that 
it  is  not  by  blood  de;  'x»nt  alone  that  we  transmit 
those  things  that  make  up  our  stock  of  ideas  and 
traditions,  but  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  training 
the  children  of  Italians  and  Poles  and  Lithuanians 
to  a  worthy  American  citizenship.     In  any  case  we 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIOxNEERS 


131 


CHAP.  ni. 


loni 


have  these  people  with  us,  and  we  must  make  the 
best  of  the  problem.  The  right  kind  of  education 
is  that  which  fits  boys  and  girls  to  live  well  the 
life  which  is  their  appropriate  lot  under  existing 
conditions. 

If  you  have  any  doubt  about  the  value  of  educa-  What  is 

tion  to  any  huiiian  being  of  any  race  whatsoever,  '''"'' 
.  ...  ,   „    .  .  educatic 

stop  Willi  your  definition  of  the  word.     Most  of 

the  boys  and  girls  of  our  recent  immigrants  must 
be  plain,   sturdy  workers.     Their  education   in 
the  schools  ought  to  keep  this  fact  in  mind  every 
day,  and  ought  not  to  alienate  them   "-om  the 
hard   tasks  of   ordinary  life.     Education   to-day 
is  the  greatest  problem  that  confronts  our  Ameri- 
can   statesmanship,    whether    North    or    South. 
The  pioneering  process  was  a  sort  of  education 
in  itself.     The  colleges,  it  is  true,  did  their  work 
fairly  well,  but  a  little  experience  in  the  district   The  pioneer 
schools,  plus  a  large  exfK'rience  in  the  school  of  "■<"'""» 
life,    produced    most   of   our  efiicient    men  and 
women.     In  the  new  peritxl  we  must  consciously 
make  our  school  systems  minister  to  the  solution 
of  our  social  and  industrial  problems. 

As  citizens,  we  must  now  more  than  ever,  face 
our  public  responsibilities.  As  I  have  said,  the 
pioneering  century  was  that  of  an  overweening 


XI  ^ 


t^ 


'\ 


|!   1  t 


'!' 


li    i  I  . 


Ml 

(■'    li    '  ' 


!    , 

I 


132 

CHAP.  Ill- 

Socialism 
versus 
the  just 
balance 


Certain 
principles : 
—  (1)  The 
common 
carrier 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

private  initiative.     Shall  the  pendulum  now  swing 
to  the  opposite  extreme,  shall  we  become  full- 
fledged    socialists,    shall    government    not    only 
regulate  and  control,  but  shall  it  lay  hold  upon 
the  instruments  of  protection,  and  shall  we  all  in 
our  respective  callings  don  the  uniform  of  pubUc 
service  ?    I  do  not  see  why  we  need  to  face  just 
now  any  radical  solution.     We  must  simply  find 
a  just  and  true  balance  between  the  authority 
of  the  government  and  the  power  of  the  law  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  freedom  and  scope  of 
private  enterprise  on  the  other. 

Admitting  certain  principles,  we  m-st  not  be 
afraid  of  their  application  under  new  conditions. 
The  function  of  the  common  carrier  is  a  public 
one.  and  it  is  a  sound  principle  that  carriers  should 
treat   all   citizens    fairiy   and    impartially.     The 
founders  of  the  Republic  gave  to  the  government 
the  power  to  regulate  interstate  commerce.     In 
so  far  as   private   initiative  and   great  business 
interests   have  diverted   the   railroad   system   of 
the  country  from  its  true  function,  the  govern- 
ment must  find  and  enforce  a  remedy. 

Another  principle  is  well  established,  and  that 
is  the  right  of  government,  whether  local  or  gi>neral, 
to  protect  the  health  of  the  individual  or  the  family 


! 


•  r 

i  I. 


LEGACY  FROM  A  CENTURY  OF  PIONEERS 


133 


against  dangerous  conditions  over  which  the  in-     chap.  m. 
dividual  has  no  power  to  act  for  self-protection. 
It  is  right  that  your  local  authorities  should  pro-   (o)  public 
tect  you  in  your  home  against  the  spread  of  infec-  <:arefor 
tious   disease   through    the   carelessness   of  your  ^^"^^^ 
neighbors.     And  it  is  also  right,  if  on  the  national 
and  international  scale  the  food  supply  is  dele- 
terious to  health,  that  there  should  be  some  form 
of    public    intervention    and    protection.     With 
the  complexity  of  our  more  mature  social  condi- 
tions,  these    new    problems   present   themselves 
one  after  anc  her.     They  must  be  faced  as  they 
come  up  and  must  be  solved  honestly  and  intelli- 
gently. 

Government  will  inevitably  become  more  costly.  Increased 
because  there  will  be  more  things  in  the  future  <'"«<<'/ 
than  in  the  past  to  be  done  collectively  for  the  mlZ^' 
common  benefit.     And  so,  while  trying  to  solve 
the  problem  how  to  secure  a  more  equa'  distribu- 
tion of  private  wealth  among  citizens,  we  must 
also  learn  better  ways  to  supply  hwal  and  state 
and  national  governments  with  the  revenues  that 
they  need  for  the  carrying  on  of  their  increasing 
functions. 

All  these  are  not  things  for  you  to  worry  about, 
young  men,  b>it  they  are  thini^'s  for  you  to  take 


1 


% 


wh 


i  t 


134 

CHAP.  III. 

A  time  for 
energy, 
not  for 
anxiety 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

an  intense  interest  in.     Do  not  shrink  in  fear  from 
the  problems  before  us.     Do  not  lose  faith  in  our 
people,  or  our  country,  or  our  institutions.     But 
be  glad  that  you  may  all  bear  some  part  in  help- 
ing to  do  the  work  of  your  generation ;  so  that, 
as  the  pioneers  before  us  saw  the  wilderness  sub- 
dued and  peopled,  and  gloried  in  the  country's 
swift  material  progress,  you  may  live  to  see  an 
intensive  progress  where  the  pioneer  saw  an  ex- 
tensive one,  and  may  feel  that  you  have  helped  in 
your  day  and  generation  to  reestablish  on  firm 
foundations   those   things  that  have  always  be- 
longed to  the  best  ideals  of  American  life. 


i 


If 


tl 


I 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 
AND  THE  COMMUNITY 


*TM 


V 


i 


, 


I 


lii" 


:    ■» 


.1 


U     .f"! 


,'| 


if 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  BUSINESS  CAREER  AND  THE 
COMMUNITY 

We   have  heard    much  in  these  recent   times   The 

concerning  the  state  in  its  relation  to  trade,  in-  ''"»'"««» 

community 
dustry,  and  the  economic  concerns  of  individuals  and  the 

and  groups.  Rapidly  changing  conditions,  hew-  ^^^^^'^ 
ever,  make  it  fitting  that  more  should  be  said 
from  the  opposite  standpoint ;  that  is  to  say,  re- 
garding the  responsibilities  of  the  business  com- 
munity as  such  toward  the  state  in  particular 
and  toward  the  whole  social  organism  in  general. 
Some  of  the  thoughts  to  which  I  should  like    The 

to   give   expression    might   perhaps    too   readily  P'""^"'"'"' 

standpoint 
fall  mto  abstract  or  philosophical  terms.     They 

might,  on  the  other  hand,  not  less  easily  clothe 
themselves  in  cant  phrases  and  assume  the  horta- 
tory tone.  I  shall  try  to  avoid  dialectic  or  theory 
on  the  one  hand,  and  preaching  on  the  other. 
I  take  it  that  what  I  am  to  say  is  addressed  chiefly 
to  young  men,  and  that  it  ought  to  serve  a  prac- 
tical object. 

137 


.•1  ifi 


5 


J 


i'     ! 


.    t 


w. 

I 


fl 


l'«J 


H  ' 


i'.' 


ri; 


it 


I  ir-  s 


;!i 


!h 


138 

CHAP.  IV. 

Motive 
in  the 
business 
world 


"  Commer- 
cialism" 
and  its 
critics 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

In  the  universities  the  spirit  of  idealism  domi- 
nates. The  academic  point  of  view  is  not  merely 
an  intellectual  one,  but  it  is  also  ethical  and  altru- 
istic. In  the  business  world,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  are  told  that  no  success  is  possible  except  that 
which  is  based  upon  the  motive  of  money  getting 
by  any  means,  however  ruthless.  We  are  told 
that  the  standards  of  business  life  are  in  conflict 
irreconcilable  with  true  idealistic  aims  It  is  this 
situation  that  I  wish  to  analyze  and  discuss ;  for 
it  concerns  the  student  in  a  very  direct  way. 

Our  moralists  point  out  the  dangerous  preva- 
lence of  those  low  standards  of  personal  life  and 
conduct  summed  up  in  the  terra  "commercial- 
ism."    We  are  warned  by  some  of  our  foremost 
teachers  and  ethical  leaders  against  commercial- 
ism in  politics  and  commercialism  in  society.     So 
bitterly   reprobated   indeed    is   the   influence   of 
commercialism   that   it   might   be   inferred   that 
commerce  itself  is  at  best  a  necessary  evil  and 
a  thing  to  be  apologized  for.     But  if  we  are  to 
accept  this  point  of  view  without  careful  discrimi- 
nation, we  may  well  be  alarmed ;   for  we  live  in 
a  world  given  over  as  never  before  to  the  whirl 
of  industry  and  the  rush  and  excitement  of  the 
market-place. 


•'^V  ;  I 


*1..'^ 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


139 


This,  of  all  ages,  is  the  age  of  the  business      chap.  iv. 
man.     The  heroic  times  when  warfare  was  the  >pf^g 
chief  concern  of  nations,  have  long  since  passed  business 
by.     So,  too,  the  ages  of  faith  —  when  theology  "*"'*  *  "*'* 
was  the  mainspring  of  action,  when  whole  peoples 
went  on  long  crusades,  and  when  building  cathe- 
drals and  burning  heretics  were  typical  of  men's 
efforts  and  convictions  —  have  fallen  far  into  the 
historic   background.     Further,   we   would   seem   Tf^g 
in  the  main  to  have  left  behind  us  that  period  of  historic 
which  the  French  Revolution  is  the  most  con-     "'^  '"^'^"" 
spicuous  landmark,  when  the  gaining  of  political 
liberty  for  the  individual  seemed  the  one  supreme 
good,  and  the  object  for  which  nations  and  com- 
munities were  ready  to  sacrifice  all  else. 

Through  these  and  other  periods  characterizefl   Idealism 

by  their  own  especial  aims  and  ideals  we  have  «"'^'™''« 

condiliona 
come  to  an  age  when  commercialism  is  the  all- 
absorbing  thing;  and  we  are  told  by  pessimists 
that  these  dominant  conditions  are  hopelessly  in- 
compatible with  academic  idealism  or  with  the 
maintenance  of  high  ethical  standards,  whether 
for  the  guidance  of  the  individual  himself  or  for 
the  acceptance  and  control  of  the  community. 
It  is  precisely  this  state  of  affairs,  then,  that  I 
desire  briefly  to  consider.     And  I  shall  keep  in 


IS 

pi 


''! 


140 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


b  ■  i'^ 


The  drift 
of  the 
times 


mind  those  bearings  of  it  that  might  seem  to 
have  some  relation  to  the  views  and  aims  of  stu- 
dents who  are  soon  to  go  out  from  the  sheltered 
life  of  the  university,  —  under  the  necessity, 
whether  they  shrink  from  it  or  not,  of  becoming 
part  and  parcel  of  this  organism  of  business  and 
trade  that  has  invaded  almost  every  sphere  of 
modem  activity. 

I  have  only  recently  heard  a  great  and  elo- 
quent teacher  of  morals,  himself  an  exponent  of 
the  highest  and  finest  culture  to  which  we  have 
attained,  speak  in  terms  of  the  utmost  doubt  and 
anxiety  regarding  the  drift  of  the  times.     To  his 
mind,  the  evils  and  dangers  accompanying  the 
stupendous  developments  of  our  day  are  such  as 
to  set  what  he  called  commercialism  in  direct 
antagonism  to  all  that  in  his  mind  represented 
the  higher  good,  which  he  termed  idealism.     The 
impression  that  he  left  upon  his  audience  was  that 
the  forces  of  our  present-day  business  life  are  in- 
herently opposed  to  the  achievement  of  the  best 
results  in  statecraft  and  in  the  general  life  of  the 
An  anxious  community.     He  could   propose   no  remedy  for 
the  evils  he  deplored  except  education,  and  the 
saving  of  the  old  ideals  through  the  remnant  of 
the   faithful  who  had   not  bowed   the  knee   in 


moralist 


1 11 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


141 


h  A 


CHAP.  IV. 


the  temple  of  Mammon.     But  he  pointed  out  no 

way  by  which  to  protect  the  tender  blossoms 

of   academic    idealism,    when    they    meet    their 

inevitable  exposure  in  due  time  to  the  blighting 

and  withering  blasts  of  the  commercialism  that  to 

him  seemed  so  little  reconcilable  with  the  good, 

the  true,  and  the  beautiful. 

To  all  this  the  practical  man  can  only  reply,   The 

that  if,  indeed,  commercialism  itself  cannot  be  P'"«'^'*coZ 

man's 
made  to  furnish  a  soil  and   an  atmosphere  in  reply 

which  idealism  can  grow,  bud,  blossom,  and  bear 
glorious  fruit,  —  then  idealism  is  hopelessly  a  lost 
cause.  If  it  be  not  possible  to  promote  things 
ideally  good  through  these  very  forces  of  com- 
mercial and  industrial  life,  then  the  outlook  is  a 
gloomy  one  for  the  social  moralist  and  the  politi- 
cal purist. 

It  is  not  a  defensive  position  that  I  propose  to  Not  a 

take.     I  should  not  think  it  needful  at  this  time  '^"'*''''"  "^ 

ordinary 

even  so  much  as  briefly  to  reflect  any  of  those  honesty 
timorous  and  painful  arguments  pro  and  con  that 
one  finds  at  times  running  through  the  columns  of 
the  press,  particularly  of  the  religious  weeklies, 
on  such  a  question  as,  for  example,  whether 
nowadays  a  man  can  at  the  same  time  be  a  true 
Christian   and   a   successful   business   man;    or 


hi 


H 


I 


142 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAX 


m 


i'! 


:  .t  i 


Pi  *  I ' 


'.J 


!.'.       I 


CHAP.  IV, 


A  higher 
principle 
at  stake 


The 

negative 
moral  code 


whether  the  observance  of  the  principles  of  com- 
mon honesty  is  at  all  compatible  with  a  winning 
effort  to  make  a  decent  living. 

I  am  well  aware  that  tlie  thoughtful  and  intel- 
lectual founder  of  this  lectureship,  under  which  I 
have  been  invited  to  speak,  takes  no  such  narrow 
view  either  of  morality  on  the  one  hand  or  of 
the  function  of  business  Hfe  on  the  other.  His 
definition  of  morality  in  business  would  demand 
something  very  different  from  the  mere  avoidance 
of  certain  obvious  transgressions  of  the  accepted 
rules  of  conduct,  particularly  of  that  command- 
ment which  says,  "Thou  shalt  not  steal."  Nor, 
on  the  other  hand,  would  his  definition  of  the 
functions  of  business  life  be  in  any  manner 
bounded  by  the  notion  that  business  is  a  pursuit 
having  for  its  sole  object  the  getting  of  the  largest 
possible  amount  of  money. 

Those  people  who  are  content  to  apply  nega- 
tive moral  standards  to  the  carrying  on  of  busi- 
ness life  remind  one  of  the  little  boy's  familiar 
definition  of  salt :  "  Salt,"  said  he,  "  is  what  makes 
potatoes  taste  bad  when  you  don't  put  any  on." 
According  to  that  sort  of  definition,  morality  in 
business  would  be  defined  as  that  quality  which 
makes  the  grocer  good  and  respectable  when  he 


t~<QKsntSke'. 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


143 


resists  ter^ptation  and  does  not  put  sand  in  the  chap.  iv. 
sugar.  Tilt  smug  maxim  that  honesty  is  tlie  best 
policy,  while  doubtless  true  enough  as  a  verdict 
of  human  experience  under  normal  conditions,  is 
not  fitted  to  arouse  much  enthusiasm  as  a  state- 
ment of  ultimate  ethicai  aims  and  ideals. 

If  it  were  admitted  that  the  sole  or  guiding   Trade 

motive  in  a  business  career  must  needs  be  the  '""'■«'«  '^nd 

1   ■  e  -r     .       .  .  the  penal 

accumulraon  of  money,   I  should  certainly  not   code 

think  it  worth  while,  in  the  name  of  trade  morals, 
to  urge  young  men  who  are  to  enter  business  life 
that  they  play  the  game  according  to  safe  and 
well-recognized  rules.  I  would  not  take  the 
trouble  to  advise  them  to  study  the  penal  code 
and  to  familiarize  themselves  with  the  legal  defi- 
nitions of  grand  and  petit  larceny,  of  embezzle- 
ment, or  fraud,  or  arson,  in  order  that  they  might 
escape  certain  hazards  that  beset  a  too  narrow 
kind  of  devotion  to  business  success. 

It  is  true,  doubtless,  that  a  business  career  affords  Some 

peculiar  opportunities,  and  is  therefore  subject  to  ''''^■'''"« 
....  temptations 

Its  own  characteristic  temptations,  as  respects  the 

purely  private  and  personal  standards  of  conduct. 

The    magnitude    of    our    economic    movement, 

the  very  splendor  of  the  opportunities  that  the 

swift  development  of  a  vast  young  country  like 


v<     'I 


t    n 


1    Ir, 

;1  ■ 


,T«53BIP1Bf>5S,?ST 


144 


»' 


CHAP.  IV. 


I'crsonal 
honor 
and  the 
choice  of 
callings 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

ours  affords,  must  inevitably  in  some  cases  upset 
at  once  the  sober  business  judgment  of  men,  and 
in  some  cases  the  standard  of  personal  honor 
and  good  faith,  in  the  temptation  to  get  rich 
quickly;  so  that  wrong  is  done  thereby  to  a  man's 
associates  or  to  those  whose  interests  are  in  his 
hands,  while  still  greater  wrong  is  done  to  his 
own  character. 

But,   even   against   this   dangerous  greed   for 
wealth  and  the  unscrupulousness  and  ruthlessness 
which  it  engenders,  it  is  no  part  of  my  present 
object  to  warn  any  young  man.     I  take  it  that 
the   negative   standards   of   private   conduct 
usually  not   much  affected  by  a   man's  choice 
of  a  pursuit  in  life.     K  any  man's  honor  could 
be  filched  from  him  by  a  merely  pecuniary  re- 
ward, whether  greater  or  less,  I  should  not  think 
it  likely  that  he  would  be  much  safer  in  the  long 
nm  if  he  ch^se  the  clerical  profession,  for  example, 
than  if  he  went  into  business. 

Sooner  or  later  his  character  would  disclose 
itself.  It  is  not,  then,  of  the  private  and  negative- 
standards  of  conduct  that  I  wish  to  speak,— 
except  by  way  of  such  allusions  as  these.  And 
even  these  allusions  are  only  for  the  sake  of  mak- 
ing more  distinct  the  positive  and  active  phases 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


1J5 


CHAP.  IV. 


of  business  ethics  that  I  should  like  to  present  in 

such  a  way  as  to  fasten  them  upon  thv  attention. 

Many  young  men,  to  whom  these  views  are  Recognized 

addressed,  will  doubtless  choose,  or  have  already  '"'"■^* 
,  .  of  the  pro- 

chosen,  what  IS  commonly  known  as  a  profes-  fessionat 

sional  career.     The  ministry,  law,  and  medicine  '^*"'*"' 
are  the  oldest  and  best  recognized  of  the  so-called 
liberal   or  learned   professions.     Now   what   are 
the  distinctive  marks  of  professional  life?    Are 
the  men  who  practice  these  professions  not  also 
business  men?    And  if  so,  how  are  they  differ- 
ent from  those  business  men  who  are  considered 
laymen,  or  non-professional  ?    Obviously  the  dis- 
tinctions that  are  to  be  drawn,  if  any,  are  in 
the  nature  of  marked  tendencies.     We  shall  not 
expect  to  find  any  hard  and  fast  lines.     Many  Certain 
lawyers,  some  doctors,  and  a  few  clergjmen  are  f''»^enciea 
clearly  enough  business  men,  in  the  sense  that 
they  attach   more  importance  to  the  economic 
l)earings  of  the  part  they  play  in  the  social  or- 
ganism than  to  the  higher  ethical  or  intellectual 
aspects  of  their  work. 

I  have  read  an«l  heard  many  definitions  of  what 
really  constitutes  a  professional  man.  Whatever 
else,  however,  may  characterize  the  nature  of 
his  calling,  it  seems  to  me  plain  that  no  man 

L 


11 


Mi 


'I 


f  i 


'V' 


r 


I 


I"  .. 


'{■ 


! 

:.  r 
I 


f 


11' 


146 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Service 
of  the 
community 
the  test 


can  be  thought  a  true  or  worthy  member  of  a 
profession  who  does  not  admit,  both  in  theory 
and  in  the  rules  and  practices  of  his  life,  that  he 
has  a  public  function  to  serve,  and  that  he  must 
frequently  be  at  some  discomfort  or  disadvantage 
because  of  the  calls  of  professional  duty.    The 
laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire;    and  the  profes- 
sional man  is  entitled  to  obtain,  if  he  can,  a  com- 
petence for  himself  and  his  family  from  the  use- 
ful and  productive  service  he  is  rendering  to  his 
fellow-men.     He   may  even,  through   genius  or 
through  the  great  confidence  his  character  and 
skill  inspire,  gain  considerable  wealth  in  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession.     But  if  he  is  a  true  pro- 
fessional man.  he  does  not  derive  his  incentive 
Pecuniary    to  effort    solely    or   chiefly   from  the    pecuniary 
gains  that  his  profession  brings  him.     Nor  is  the 
amount  of  his  income  reganled  among  the  fellow- 
members  of  his  profession  as  the  true  test  or 
measure  of  his  success. 

Thus  the  lawyer,  in  ♦he  theory  of  his  profes- 
sion. l>ears  an  important  public  relation  to  the 
dispensing  of  justice  and  to  the  protection  of  the 
innocent  and  the  feeble.  He  is  not  a  private- 
person,  but  a  part  of  the  system  for  supporting 
the  reign  of  law  and  of  right  in  the  com...anity. 


success 

only 

incidental 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


147 


'■   fl 


Historically,  in  this  country,  the  lawyer  has  also     chap.  iv. 
borne  a  great  part  in  the  making  and  administer-   The 
ing  of  our  institutions  of  government.    If,  as  some  '''"'^f '« 
of  us  think,  the  ethical  code  of  that  profession  duty 
needs  to  be  somewhat  revised  in  view  of  present- 
day  conditions,  and  needs  also  to  be  more  sternly 
appUed  to  some  of  the  members  of  the  profes- 
sion, it  is  true,  none  the  less,  that  there  clearly 
belongs  to  this  great  calling  a  series  of  duties  of  a 
public  nature,  some  of  them  imposed  by  the  laws 
of  the  land,  and  others  inherent  in  the  very  nature 
of  the  occupation  itself. 

It  is  true  in  an  even  more  marked  and  unde- 
niable fashion  that  the  profession  of  medicine, 
by  virtue  of  its  public  and  social  aspects,  is  dis- 
tinguished in  a  marked  way  from  a  calling  in  life 
in  which  a  man  might  feel  that  what  he  did  was  Medicine 
strictly  his  own  business,  subject  to  nobody's 
scrutiny,  or  inquiry,  or  interference.  The  physi- 
cian's public  obligation  is  in  part  prescrilied  by 
the  laws  of  the  state  which  regulate  medical 
practice,  and  in  very  large  part  by  the  profes- 
sional codes  which  have  been  evolved  by  the 
profession  itself  for  its  own  guidance.  It  is  not 
the  amount  of  his  fee  that  the  overworked  doctor 
is  thinking  about  when  he  risks  his  own  health  in 


cU8o  a 
public 
career 


;  ! 


f 

'T 

r  I 

I 


ir:<*r 


* 


148 

CHAP.  IV. 

Profes- 
sional un- 
selfishness 


No  real 
self-denial 
in  the  pro- 
fesainncJ, 
atiUude 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

response  to  night  calls,  or  when  he  devotes  him- 
self to  some  especially  painful  or  difficult  case. 
Nor  is  it  a  mere  consideration  of  his  possible 
earnings  that  would  deter  him  from  seeking  com- 
fort and  safety  by  taking  his  family  to  Europe  at 
a  time  when  an  epidemic  had  broken  out  in  his 
own  neighborhood. 

I  need  not  allude  to  the  unselfish  devotion  to 
the  good  of  the  community  that  in  so  high  a  de- 
gree marks  the  lives  of  most  of  the  members  of 
the  clerical  profession,  for  this  is  evident  to  all 
observant  persons. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be  too  clearly 
perceived  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  disinter- 
estedness, and  in  the  obligation  to  render  pub- 
lic service  characterizing  professional  life  that 
amounts  to  unnatural  self-denial  or  painful  renun- 
ciation, —  unless  in  some  extreme  and  individual 
cases.  On  the  contrary,  professional  life  at  its  best 
offers  a  great  advantage  in  so  far  as  it  permits  a 
man  to  think  first  of  the  work  he  is  doing  and  the 
social  service  he  is  rendering,  rather  than  of  pecu- 
niary reward.  I  have  myself  on  more  than  one 
occasion  pointed  out  to  young  men  the  greater 
prospect  for  happiness  in  life  that  comes  with  the 
choice  of  a  culling  in  which  the  work  its'«lf  pri- 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


149 


manly  focuses  the  attention,  and   in  which  the      chap.  iv. 
pecuniary  reward  comes  as  an  incident  rather 
than  as  the  conscious  and  direct  result  of  a  given 
effort. 

The  greatest  pleasure  in  work  is  that  which  What  gives 
comes  from  the  trained  and  regulated  exercise  of  pleasure  in 
the  faculty  of  imagination.     In  the  conduct  of  """^ 
.eveiy  law  case  this  faculty  has  abundant  oppor- 
tunity, as  it  also  has  in  the  efforts  of  the  physi- 
cian to  aid  nature  in  the  restoration  of  health  and 
vigor  in  the  individual,  or  in  the  sanitary  pro- 
tection of  the  community.     I  hope  I  have  made 
clear  this  point :   that  pecuniary  success,  even  in 
large  measure,  in  the  work  of  a  professional  man, 
may   be   entirely   compatible   with   disinterested 
devotion  to  a  kind  of  work  that  makes  for  the 
public  weal,  while  it  is  also  worthy  of  pursuit 
for  its  own  sake,  and  brings  content  and  even 
happiness  in  the  doing.     And  it  is  clear  enough,   The  sense 

in  the  case  of  a  professional  man,  that  he  is  false  "-^  P"**'"^ 
1     u*  r      •  I         .  .  obl> nation 

to  his  profession  and  to  his  plain  obligations  if 

he  shows  himself  to  l)e  ruled  by  tlie  anti-social 
spirit ;  that  is  to  say.  if  he  considers  himself  ab- 
solved from  any  duties  toward  the  community 
about  him;  thinks  that  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession is  a  private  affair  for  his  own  profit  and 


i  0; 


i 


\. 


1 

ff 

*■■] 

:  % 

t  ) 

i 
i 

! 

1 
! 

' 

i 

i 

i; 

W^  'iW 


't1, 


li.  1^ 


.    f 


it'  - 
I 

i 


150 

CHAP.  IV. 


Increasing 
range  of 
profession- 
alized 
pursuits 


The 
teacher 
above  all 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

advantage,  and  holds  that  he  has  done  his  whole 
duty  when  he  has  escaped  Uability  for  malpractice 
or  disbarment. 

But  the  three  oldest  and  best-recognized  pro- 
fessions no  longer  stand  alone,  in  the  estimation 
of  our  higher  educational  authorities  and  of  the 
inteUigent   public.     In   a   democracy   like   ours, 
with  a  constantly  advancing  conception  of  what 
is  involved  in  education  for  citizenship  and  for 
participation  in  everj-  individual  function  of  the 
social  and  economic  life,  the  work  of  the  teacher 
comes  to  be  recognized  as   professional  in  the 
highest  sense.     Teaching,  indeed,  seems  destined 
in  the  near  future  to  become  the  very  foremost 
of    all    the    professions.     This    recognition    will 
come  when  the  idea  takes  full  possession  of  the 
public  mind  that  the  chief  task  of  each  generation 
is  to  train  the  next  one,  and  to  transmit  such 
stores  of  knowledge  and  useful  experience  as  it 
has  received  from  its  predecessors  or  has  evolved 
for  itself. 

it  is  obvious  enough  that  the  work  of  the 
teacher  gives  room  for  the  play  of  the  loftiest 
ideals,  and  that  its  functions  are  essentially  public 
and  disintere.sted.  But  there  are  other  callings, 
such  as  those  of  the  architect  and  engineer,  which 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


151 


have  also  come  to  be  spoken  of  as  professional 
in  their  nature.  Their  kinship  to  the  older  pro- 
fessions has  been  more  readily  recognized  by  the 
men  of  conservative  university  traditions,  because 
much  of  the  preparation  for  these  callings  can 
advantageously  be  of  an  academic  sort.  Archi- 
tecture in  its  historical  aspects  is  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  study  of  classical  periods;  while 
the  profession  of  the  engineer  relates  itself  to  the 
immemorial  university  devotion  to  mathematics. 
And  in  like  manner  the  man  who  for  practical 
purposes  becomes  a  chemist  or  an  electrician 
would  be  easily  admitted  by  President  Eliot,  for 
example,  to  the  favored  fellowship  of  the  profes- 
sional classes  for  the  reason,  first,  of  the  disci- 
plinary and  liberalizing  nature  of  the  studies 
that  underlie  his  calling,  and  in  the  second  place, 
of  the  public  and  social  aspects  of  the  functions 
he  fulfills  in  the  pursuit  of  his  vocation. 

The  architect,  the  civil  or  mechanical  or  elec- 
trical engineer,  and  the  chemist,  as  well  as  the 
professional  teacher,  the  trained  librarian,  or 
the  journalist  who  carries  on  his  work  with  due 
sense  of  its  almost  unequuicd  public  duties  and 
responsibilities,  —  all  these  are  now  admitted  by 
dicta  of  our  foremost  authorities  to  a  place  equal 


CHAP.  IV. 

The 

engineer 
and 
architect 


Scientific 
specialists 


Callings 
having  a 
clear 
public 
character 


^n 


152 


CBAP.  IV. 


J 

Ml 
# 

I 


J 

ftr 


Ethical 
codes 
of  these 
callinga 


Meaning 
of  the  term 
"  public 
spirit " 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

with  the  law,  medicine,  and  the  ministry  in  the 
list  of  the  professions ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  group 
of  callings  which,  under  my  definition,  are  dis- 
tinguished especially  by  their  public  character. 
And  in  this  group,  of  course,  shouid  be  included 
politicians,  legislators,  and  public  administrators 
in  so  far  as  they  serve  the  public  interests  repu- 
tably and  in  a  professional  spirit.  Nor  should 
we  forget  such  special  classes  of  public  servants 
as  the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy;  while  no- 
body will  deny  public  character  and  professional 
rank  to  men  of  letters,  artists,  musicians,  and 
actors. 

In  all  these  callings  it  is  demanded  not  merely 
that  men  shall  be  subject  to  the  private  rules  of 
conduct,  —  that  they  must  not  cheat,  or  lie,  or 
steal,  or  bear  false  witness,  or  be  bad  neighbors 
or  undesirable  citizens,  —  but  in  addition  and  in 
the  most  important  sense  that  they  shall  be  sub- 
ject to  positive  ethical  standards  that  relate  to  the 
welfare  of  the  whole  community,  and  that  require 
of  them  the  exercise  of  a  true  public  spirit. 

The  man  of  public  spirit  is  he  who  is  able 
at  a  given  moment,  under  certain  conditions,  to 
set  the  public  welfare  before  his  own.  Further- 
more, he  is  a  man  who  is  trained  and  habituated 


.li 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


153 


to  that  poiiit  of  view,  so  that  he  is  not  aware  of      chap.  iv. 

any  pangs  of  martyrdom  or  even  of  any  exercise 

of  self-denial  when  he  is  concerning  himself  about 

the   public  good   even   to   his   own   momentary 

inconvenience  or  disadvantage.     Public  spirit  is 

that  stat-^  or  habit  of  mind  which  leads  a  man 

to  care  greatly  for  the  general  welfare.     It  is  this 

ethical  quality  that  to  my  mind  should  be  the 

great  aim  and  object  of  training. 

On  its  best  side,   what  we  term  the  profes-   The  added 

sional  spirit  is,  then,  very  closely  related  to  this  *'"'»''/« 

111  1.       .  pro/es- 

commendable  quality  m  men  of  a  right  intellec-  aional  man 

tual  and  moral  development  that  we  call  pub- 
lic spirit.     The  chief  difference  lies  in  this :   that 
whereas   all   professional   men   may   be   pubUc- 
spirited  in  a  general  sense,  each  professional  man 
should,  in  addition,  manifest  a  special  and  tech- 
nical sort  of  public  spirit  that  pertains  to  the 
nature  of  his  calling.     The  lawyer  should  have 
a  particularly  keen  regard  for  the  equitable  ad- 
ministration of  justice.     The  doctor  should  truly 
care  for  the   physical   wholesomeness  and   well-  "  Public 
being  of  the  community.     The  clergyman  should  «P''"«<" 
be  alive  to  those  things  that  concern  the  recti-  something 
tude  and  purity  of  life.     The  journalist  should  *""''* 
be  willing  to  make  sacrifices  for  the  sake  of  the 


'    ill 


'-f'l 


154 


CHAP.  IV. 


Business 
also  must 
assume 
profes- 
sional 
standards 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

enlightenment  of  public  ofnion;  and  so  on. 
Without  either  the  general  or  the  technical 
manifestations  of  public  spirit,  in  short,  the  so- 
called  professional  man  is  a  reproach  to  his 
guild  and  a  failure  in  his  neighborhood. 

Now,  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  moral 
standards  that  belong  to  the  business  career  as 
distinguished    from   the    professional    life?    My 
arswer  must  be  very  clear  and  very  direct  if  I 
am  to  justify  so  long  an  analysis  of  the  ethical 
characteristics  of  the  professions  themselves.     I 
have  merely  used  the  time-honored    method  of 
trying  to  lead  you  by  way  of  familiar,  admitted 
points  of  view  to  certain  points  of  view  that,  if 
not  wholly  new,  are  at  least  less  familiar  and  less 
widely  recognized.     The  whole  thesis  that  I  wish 
to  develop  is  simply  this:    that  however  it  may 
have  been  in  business  life  in  times  past  and  gone, 
there  has  been  such  a  tremendous  change  in  the 
organization  and  methods  of  the  business  world 
and  also  in  the  relative  importance  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  business  man  in  the  community,  that 
the  distinctions  which  have  hitherto  set  apart  the 
professional  classes  have  become  obsolete  for  all 
practical  purposes  in  many  branches  and  depart- 
ments of  the  business  world. 


i 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


155 


At  least,  the  v/ork  of  the  responsible  leaders      chap.  iv. 
is  no  longer  to  be  regarded  as  essentially  a  thing   jf^^ 
of  private  concern  and  free  from  public  responsi-  obligations 
bility.     If  the   l)usiness  world  is  not  character-  ^^fgi^ggg 
i/cd,  first,  by  public  spirit  and  a  sense  of  public  leadership 
duty  in  general,  and  second,  by  the  special  and 
technical  sense  of  public  obligation  that  pertains 
to   particular  kinds   or  departments  of  business 
activity,  then  it  is  falling  short  of  its  best  oppor- 
tunities and  evading  its  providential  tasks.     It  is 
for  the  modern  business  world  to  recognize  the 
conditions  that  have  in  the  fulness  of  time  given 
it  so  great  a  power  and  so  dominant  a  position; 
and  it  must  not  shirk  the  responsibilities  that  be- 
long to  it  as  fully  and  truly  as  they  belong  to  any 
of  the  professions. 

I  hold,  then,  that  the  young  man  of  education   The  right 
and  opportunity  who  proposes  to  go  into  a  busi-  ^"'^"^ 
ness  career  enters  it  not  merely  with  a  low  and  un-  success 
worthy  standard  if  his  sole  irotive  and  object  be  to 
acquire  wealth,  but  he  also  enters  it  in  disregard 
of  the  ideas  that  fill  the  minds  of  the  best  modern 
business   lca«lers.     He  shows  a  pitiable   lack   of 
appreciation  of  the  elements  that  are  to  constitute 
real  business  success  iti  the  period  within  which 
his  own  career  must  fall. 


«  ji 


f 


I 

i! 


II 


I 


b'<.-'vs 


156 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Evolution 
of  modern 
business 


How  old 
conditions 
have  been 
bet/^ed 


The  days 
when 
poverty 
prevailed 


;-'f'i 


Let  us  consider,  briefly,  the  evolution  of  our 
present-day  economic  or  business  life,  and  then 
take  note  of  the  necessary  place  that  particular 
classes  of  business  men  must  hold  in  the  structure 
of  our  society.     I,  for  my  part,  look  upon  this  last 
century  of  economic  progress,  —  under  the  sway 
of  what  is  often  called  "  capitalism  "  as  a  term  of 
reproach,  —  as  an  ipimeasurahle  boon  to  man- 
kind.    It  began  with  the  practical  utiUzation  of 
several  great  inventions,  notably  that  of  steam 
power,  which  broke  up  the  old  household  and 
village   industries,   gave   us  the   modern  factory 
system,  and  along  with  the  development  of  rail- 
roads gave  us  the  modern  industrial  city.     This 
new  and  revolutionizing  system  of  industry  and 
business  forced  its  way  into  a   "orid  of  poverty, 
of  disease,  of  depraved  public  life,  of  low  morals 
in  the  main  pervading  the  community,  —  a  world 
for  the  most  part  of  class  distinctions  in  which 
the  lot  even  of  the  privileged  few  was  not  a  very 
noble  or  enviable  one,  while  the  state  of  the  vaL,t 
majority  was  little  better  than  that  of  serfs. 

Many  writers  have  sought  to  throw  a  charm 
and  a  glamour  over  that  old  condition  of  eco- 
nomic life  and  society  that  followed  the  break-up 
of  feudalism  and  that  preceded  the  creation  of 


,Am  jm 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


157 


our  new  political  and  industrial  institutions.  But  chap,  iv 
with  some  mitigations  it  was  for  most  people  a 
period,  as  I  have  said,  of  squalor,  disease,  and 
degradation.  The  fundamental  trouble  could  be 
summed  up  in  the  one  word,  'poverty.  The  mis- 
•k'l  c'  the  nev/  industrial  system,  for  the  most  part 
V  -•ori'^nlrt'-  ..  -^  unrecognized,  was  to  transform 
'h*-    wn'ti    '  .        (olishing   the   reign   of   poverty.   Mission  of 


.fl. 


the  new 
system 


:i  «\oind  be  desirable  if  the  improve- 
ni'-A'  •  f  c  ndi  oT.s,  material  and  spiritual,  could 
r  ,•  •  J-  s,'  with  exactly  even  pace  on  some 
,v",  ,M  svm',.etrical  plan.  But  history  shows 
u'  t'laf  1h<.  forward  social  movement  has  pro- 
vf  '■.  i  fi'"«t  ia  one  aspect,  then  in  another,  on 
lines  so  tangential,  oftrn  so  zigzag,  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult until  one  gets  distance  enough  for  perspective, 
to  see  that  any  true  progress  has  been  made  at  all. 

Thus,    the    modern    industrial    system,    which   The  hard 

found   the   conditions    of   poverty,   disease,    and  '"^  "".  I'-' 

•^  •'  transition 

haioship  prevalent,  seemed  for  quite  a  long  time, 
in  its  rude  breaking  up  of  old  relations  and  its 
ruthless  adherence  'o  certain  newly  proclaimed 
principles,  to  have  rought  matters  from  bad  to 
worse.  The  squalor  and  poverty  of  the  village 
of  hand-loom  weavers  seemed  only  intensified  in 
the  new  industrial  towns  to  which  the  weavers 


t>     ■! 


.   Si 


i 


wesKSBSs^Tms 


158 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Earhf  days 
of  the 
factory 
system 


Necessary 
•phases 


Production 
first,  social 
progress 
afterwards 


flocked  fr'-m  their  deserted  hamlets.  Manu- 
facturers were  doing  business  under  the  fiercest 
and  most  unregulated  competition.  Economists 
were  demonstrating  their  "law  of  supply  and 
demand"  and  their  "iron  law  of  wages"  as 
capable  in  themselves  of  regulating  all  the  con- 
ditions and  relations  of  business  life.  Epidemics 
raged,  and  depravity  prevailed  in  the  new  factory 
centers. 

But  things  were  not,  in  reality,  going  from  bad 
to  worse.  The  beginnings  of  a  better  order  had 
to  be  based  up<jn  two  things:  first  and  foremost, 
the  .sheer  creation  of  capital;  second,  the  di.sci- 
pline  and  training  of  workers.  In  the  first  phases, 
the  new  mcxlern  business  period  had  to  be  a 
period  of  production.  There  had  got  to  be  de- 
veloped the  instrumentalities  for  the  creation  of 
wealth.  Until  the  industrial  sv.stem  had  rai.stMl 
up  its  class  of  efficient  workers  and  had  created 
its  great  ma.ss  of  ci'pital  for  productive  purposes, 
there  could  be  no  suppb  of  cheap  goods;  and 
without  an  abundant  and  cheap  output  there 
could  l)e  no  p()ssil)lc  diffusion  of  economic  bene- 
fits; in  other  wonis,  no  marked  amelioration  of 
the  prevailing  poverty. 

It   required    .some   development   of   wealth   to 


i'l 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


159 


lift  our  modern   peoples  out   of  a  poverty  too      chap.  iv. 
grinding   and    too   debasing   for   intellectual   or  Good  and 
moral    progress.     It    is    true    that    the    factory  <"«'' '"  the 
towns,  created  as  they  have  all  been  by  modern  methods 
industrial   conditions   during   the    past    century, 
brought  their  distinctive  evils.     There  was  over- 
crowding in  ill-built  tenement  houses;   and  long 
hours  for  women  and  children  in  the  factories. 
Yet  with  these  and  many  other  disadvantages,  the 
new  industrial  system  made  for  discipline  and  for 
intelligence,  and  above  all  for  a  new  kind  of  solidar- 
ity and  for  a  sense  of  brotherhood  among  workers. 

In  due  lime  the  worst  evils  began  to  be  miti-  Growth  of 
gated,  largely  through  the  application  of  those  ""'"7.^ 

'  '  remedies 

very  melhoils  of  organization  which  had  char- 
acterized the  new  kind  «»f  indu.stry  itself.  Thus 
for  men  who  had  applied  steam  {>ower  to  manu- 
facturing and  had  bcgim  to  build  railromls,  it 
was  soon  perceived  to  Iw  a  matter  not  only  of 
sanitary  and  social  servuv,  but  of  pe<imiary 
profit,  to  provide  water  supplies,  public  ilhmiina- 
tion.  and  other  conv««nicna'H  to  the  cniwded  city 
dwellers.  Moreover,  with  the  prognvss  «)f  in- 
dustry and  the  development  of  railroads  and 
steam  navigation,  prcxluction  and  trade  took  on 
Bn  ever-increasing  volume. 


'h 

^:'[ 


160 

CHAP.  IV. 

There  were 
no  rich 
tn',n 


—  until 
very  recent 
times 


Competi- 
tion and 
the  part  it 
played 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

Then  the  world  began  to  be  less  poor.     There 
had  been  no  rich  men  in  the  modem  aense,  and 
of  course  no  such  thing  as  capitalized  corpora- 
tions for  production.     The  richest  man  in  the 
United  States  at  the  time  of  his  death,  a  little 
more  than   a  hundred   years  ago,   was  George 
Washington,  with  his  land  and  his  slaves;    and 
so  in  England  and  France  there  were  no  rich 
men  in  the    modern  sense,    that  is  to    say,  no 
men  who  controlled  great  masses  of  productive 
capital.     The   men   of    wealth   were   those   who 
held  landed  estates.     The  chief  business  of  all 
countries  was  agriculture.     The  capitalistic  sys- 
tem in  indu.stry  and  trade  existed  in  its  rudiments 
and  in  limited  measure ;  but  all  its  great  achieve- 
ments were  yet  to  be  wrought. 

All  modem  business  life,  then,  is  the  result  of 
this  growth  of  productive  capital,  and  its  appli- 
cation and  constant  reapplication  to  the  pro- 
duction of  wealth.  It  made  its  way  by  virtue  of 
an  intense  individual  initiative  and  a  fierce  com- 
petitive straggle.  But  unlovely  as  were  thesp 
things,  many  of  their  phases  were  necessarj-  at  a 
certain  stage.  It  was  this  fierce  competition  that 
c<)m|K>lltHl  capital  to  pay  the  lowest  po.ssible 
wages    in    onler   to   market    cheap   goods.     But 


.jmyjjif  lAHi.utiii.ji.i  ■! 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


IGl 


the  same  situation  stimulated  the  use,  one  after      chap.  iv. 
another,  of  new  labor-saving  inventions  in  order 
to  increase  the  per  capita  productivity.     This  pro-  As  respecu 
cess  was  attended  by  the  higher  efficiency  of  the  ^°^'" 
worker  and  an  increase  in  his  earning  capacity. 
As  his  position  began  to   improve,   the   worker 
gained  some  hope  and  cheer;    and  he  and  his 
fellows  l)cgan  to  organize,  with   the   result   that 
both  wages  and  conditions  of  labor  were  steadily 
improved,  and  the  workman  Ixgan  to  attain  ap- 
proximately his  .share  of  benefits. 

All  this  is  a  familiar  .stor}%  although  the  depth   A  change 
of  its  significance  is  l>eyonu  the  compass  of  any  '"'/"«'' 
living  human  intelligence.     It  is  ea.sy  to  .sjiy  in  a  'h'cnsion 
glib   sentence   that   the   amount   of   wealth    pro- 
duce<l  every  few  years  nowadays  is  equal  to  all 
the  acctmiulated  wcultli  of  all  tlie  centuries  down 
to  the  early  jiart  of  the  nineteenth ;  but  the  so<ial 
meaning  of  .so  great  a  change  baffles  all  attempt 
at  full  compn'liension. 

The  comjietitive  .sy.stem,   which   had    lieen  es-    The  mm- 
sential  to  the  launching  of  this  nMnlcrn  perifxl  of  ftiti'''' 
production,  and  which  bad  given  t(.   it  .so  nuicli   Zlf'l'imit- 
of  its  irresistible  momentum,  at   lengtli  l)r()!iglil    '"'f 
the  ecouonn'c  <)rf,'iiniziJ»ion  tf»  a  jMiint  of  develop- 
ment   when',    in    sonic    fields    of    pnKJuction,    it 


■9BIP 


i 


I 

\ 
ft 


Si 


162 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


was  no  longer  a  benefit.     The  accumulation  of 

capital  had    become   so    large  —  and   with   new 

inventions   the   possible   output   had    become   .so 

abundant  —  that   it   was  well-nigh  impossible  to 

trust  to  the  blind  working  of  demand  and  supply 

to  regulate  things  in  a  beneficial  way.     It  began 

to  dawn  on  men's  minds  that  a  successful  period 

of   competitive   economic    life    might    lead    to   a 

period  largely  dominated  by  non-competitive  and 

cooperative  principles. 

The  idea  The  superior  p)ssibilities  of  this  newest  regime, 

of  a  better  ^^         ^^.jjj^  jj^^  ^^^^^y  aifficultics  and  perplexities. 

system  .    ,  •       »  .1 

began  to  captivate  the  nimds,  not  merely  of  theo- 
retical students  and  onlookers,  but,  even  more,  of 
great  masters  of  industry  and  productive  capital. 
It  began  to  be  seen  that  in  place  of  blind  and 
fierce  competition  as  a  regulator  of  prices  and  as 
an  equalizer  of  .supply  and  demand,  there  miglit 
come  to  be  gradually  substituted  some  more  con- 
sciously .scientific  methods  of  business  administra- 
tion and  of  the  adjustment  of  production  to  the 
needs  of  the  market. 

Furthermore,  with  the  development  of  business 
on  the  grtNit  sjule.  capital  had  become  ri'latively 
abundant  and  <  luap.  v.liilo,  on  the  other  hand, 
labor  was  becoming  relalivcly  cxjiensive  and  exact- 


Capital 

relatively 

abundant 


r* 


HI 

fill- 


l;V, 


THE  BUS1NES8  CAREER 


163 


ing.     It  was  evident  that  the  modern  system  of      ch  a  p.  v. 

industry  had  passed   through    its  earlier  period 

to  one  of  comparative   miii;urity;  and  that  the 

problem    of    wealth    production    was    no    longer 

so   exclusively    the   pressing    one,    but    that   the 

problems  of  distribution  were  ckmanding  more 

attention. 

How  to  organize  business  life  on  a  basis  at   Business 

once  stable  and  efficient ;   how  to  see  that  capital   ^'■"''''""■'* 

'  take  on  a 

was  assured  of  a  normal  even  thougli  a  tledining  /mhlic 
percentage  of  dividends,  while  labor  should  be  ''""■«<^'«'" 
rewanled  according  to  its  capacity  and  desert,  — 
were  problems  which  took  on  public  rather  than 
private  aspects.  And  when  the  business  world 
began  to  face  these  problems  with  the  cons<'ious- 
ncss  that  they  were  to  l>e  met,  it  had  virtually 
passeil  over  from  the  lower  plane  of  moral  and 
.s(K'ial  resptmsibility  to  the  higher  plane,  where 
what  the  directing  minds  do  or  decide  is  not 
measured  solely  by  immediate  results  in  money 
getting,  but  also  by  the  test  of  larger  social  and 
public  utilities. 

Although  these  conditions  are  not  novel  ones,   Railroads 
and  are  therefore  not  difficult  to  grasp  even  when  "'  "" 

iiistanci' 

stateil   in   general  terms,  it   is  still  true  that  the 
i'oiicrete  often   helps  to  make  the  |M>int  appear 


I 


■I 


ill 


r* 


)^w^ 


164 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


1**1 


Public  and 

private 

aspects 


The  fight 
against 
public 
regulation 


more   pertinent.     Take,  then,  the   railroad   busi- 
ness as  it  is  now  shaping  itself,  in  comparison 
with  its  conditions  and  methods  twenty  or  thirty 
years  ago.    The   railroads  have   always  existed 
by  virtue  of  charters  which  gave  them  a  quasi- 
public   character,   and   have   always  been   theo- 
retically   subject    to    certain    old    principles    of 
English    common    law    under   which   the    public 
or  common  carrier,  like  the  innkeeper,  performs  a 
function  not  wholly  private  in  its  nature.    Never- 
theless,  in  its  earlier  stages  the  railroad  system 
of  this  country  was  in    large    part    constructed 
and    operated    by    its    projectors    with    no    sense 
whatever  of  res|)onsibility  for  their  performance 
of  public  functions,  but  with  the  idea  that  they 
were  carrying  on  their  own  private  business,  in 
which  interference  on  the  part  of  tlie  public  was 
to  be  avoided   and   resented.     They   fought   the 
railroad  codes  of  state  legislatures  in  the  federal 
courts;   they  made  oppressive  rates  to  give  value 
to  new  issues  of  wateri'd  stock:  they  discriminated 
in  favor  of  one  city  and  against  another;    by  a 
system    of    .secret    rebates    they    made    different 
terms  with  even'  shipper,  thus  enabling  a  mer- 
chant  or   a    manufacturer   to   destroy   his    com- 
petitors ;   and  they  pursued  in  general  a  career  at 


_*«s 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


165 


least  anti-social  in  its  spirit  and  false  and  short-      chap.  iv. 
sighted  in  its  principles. 

A    profound    change  —  would    that    it    were   The 
already  complete  !  —  is  coming  about  in  this  great   '^  '''*?* 
field  of  transportation  business.     It  is  perceived  coming 
that  many  of  the  evils  to  which  I  have  alluded  **  "'"' 
were  incident  to  the  speculative  periods  of  con- 
struction  and   development    in   a   new   countrj'. 
The   better   leaders   in   the   business   of   railway 
administration  now  see  clearly  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  railroads  to  work  with  and  for  the  public 
and  not  against  it.     The  railroads  are  gradually 
passing  out  of  the  hands  of  the  stockjobbers  and 
speculators,  into  the  control  of  trained  adminis- 
trators.    It  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  a  coun- 
try like  ours,  the  largest  single  branch  of  organ- 
ized administration  is  that  of  the  railroatls.     We   Railroads 

have  reached  a  point  where  their  relations  to  all  ""'"  '"'"S'^*'' 

organized 

the  elaborate  interests  of  the  community  are  such  interest 
that  their  publio  character  becomes  more  and 
more  pronounced  and  evident.  It  was  only  the 
other  day  that  a  brilliant  railway  administrator, 
Mr.  Charles  S.  Mellen,  recently  pn\sident  of  the 
Northern  Pacific,  and  now  president  of  the  New 
York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  system,  made 
some  statements  in  an  address  to  the  business 


ill 


i      I 

i 


IP 


I 


*■ 


1 


If: 


V 

is 


m 


166 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


now 


men  of  Hartford  at  a  Board  of  Trade  meeting. 
With  much  else  of  the  same  import,  he  made 
the  following  significant  remarks :  — 
"Publicity  "If  corporations  are  to  continue  to  do  their 
should  rule  ^Q^k  as  they  are  best  fitted  to,  those  qualities  in 
their  representatives  that  have  resulted  in  the 
present  prejudice  against  them  must  be  relegated 
to  the  background. 

"They  must  come  out  into  the  open  and  see 
and  be  seen.     They  must  take  the  public  into 
their  confidence  and  ask  for  what  they  want  and 
no  more,  and  then  be  prepared  to  explain  satis- 
factorily what  advantage  will  accrue  to  the  pub- 
lic if  they  are  given  their  desires,  for  they  are 
jjermitted  to  exist  not  that  they  may  make  money 
solely,  but  that  they  may  effectively  serve  those 
from  whom  they  derive  their  power.     Publicity 
should    rule    now.     Publicity,    and    not    .secrecy, 
will  win  hereafter,  and   laws  will  l)e  construed 
by  their  intent  and   not  killed  by  their  letter; 
other^N'ise    public    utilities    will    be    owned    and 
operated  by  the  public  which  created  them,  oven 
though  the  service  l)e  less  efficient  and  the  result 
less  satisfactory  from  a  financial  standpoint." 

Mr.    Mellen's    state    of    mind    is    that    which 
ought  to  prevail  among  all  the  managers  of  ct)r- 


Public 
ownership 
the  alterna- 
tive 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


167 


porations  which  enjoy  public  franchises  and  per- 
form functions  fundamental  to  the  welfare  of 
the  community.  There  will  at  times  be  prejudice 
and  passion  on  the  part  of  the  public,  and  unfair 
demands  will  be  made.  We  shall  not  see  the 
attainment  of  ideal  conditions  in  the  management 
or  the  public  relations  of  any  great  business  cor- 
porations in  our  day.  But  the  time  has  come 
when  any  intelligent  and  capable  young  man  who 
chooses  to  enter  the  service  of  a  railroad  or  of 
some  other  great  corporation  may  rightly  feel  that 
he  becomes  part  of  a  system  whose  operation  is 
vital  to  the  public  welfare.  He  may  further  feel 
that  there  is  room  in  such  a  calling  for  all  his 
intelligence  and  for  the  exerci.se  and  growth  of 
all  the  best  sentiments  of  his  moral  nature. 

In  the  vast  mechanism  of  modern  business  the 
constructive  imagination  may  find  its  full  play; 
and  the  desire  to  be  of  service  to  one's  fellow- 
men  in  a  spirit  reasonably  disintere>sted  may  find 
opportunity  to  satisfy  itself  every  day.  Under 
these  cireumstances  there  is  no  reason  why  rail- 
way administration  should  not  take  on  the  same 
ethical  standards  as  l)elong  rightly  to  govern- 
mental administration,  to  educational  adminis- 
tration, or  to  the  best  professional  life. 


CHAP.  IV, 


A  system 
vital  to  the 
public 
welfare 


The 

ethical 
standards 
of  railway 
adminis- 
tration 


168 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 


The  same  thing  is  clearly  true  when  one  con- 
In  the  field   aiders  nowadays  the  delicate  and  important  func- 
of  finance     tions  of  the  world  of  banking  and  finance.     The 
old-fashioned  money  changer  and  the  usurer  of 
earlier  periods  were  regarded  as  the  very  antith- 
eses  of   men  engaged    in   honorable    mercantile 
life,  and  especially  of  those  who  possess  a  social 
spirit  and  the  desire  to  be  useful  members  of  the 
community.     But   in  these  days  the  banks  are 
not  merely  private  money-making  institutions,  but 
have  public  functions  that  admittedly  affect  the 
whole  social  organism,  from  the  government  itself 
down  to  the  humblest  laborer.    They  must  con- 
cern themselves  about  the  soundness  and  the  suflR- 
ciency  of  the  monetary  circulation;    they  must 
protect  the  credit  and  fo.ster  the  welfare  of  hon- 
est   merchants    and    manufacturers;    they    must 
cooperate  in  critical  times  to  help  one  another, 
and  thus  to  sustain  the  public  and  private  credit 
and  avert  commercial  disaster;    they  must  at  all 
hazards  protect  the  savings  of  the  poor.     Thus 
the   banks,   like   the   railroads   and   many  other 
corporate  enterprises,  are  quasi-public  affairs,  in 
the  conduct  of  which  the  public  obligation  grows 
ever  clearer  and  stronger. 

We  are  not  at  heart  —  in  this  splendid  coun- 


Social 
ethics  of 
banking 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


169 


CHAP.  IV. 


try  of  ours  —  engaged  in  a  mad  struggle  and  race 

for  wealth.     We  are  engaged  rather  in  the  great-  ^^^  ^^^^^^ 

est  effort  ever  made  in  the  world  for  the  upbuild-  <""«  /"»• 

ing  of  a  higher  civilization.     To  avow  that  this  ""''""''"'* 

civilization  must  rest  upon  a  physical  and  material 

basis  —  that  is  to  say,  upon  a  high  development 

of  our  productive  capacity  and  upon  a  constant 

improvement  in  our  processes  of  distribution  and 

exchange  —  is  not,  on  the  other  hand,  to  confess 

that  our  civilization  is  materialistic  in  its  nature 

or  in  its  aims.     I  was  very  glad,  not  long  ago,   "Convert 

to  read  the  wholesome  and  understandinij  words   '^'"'"^ 
...  °  <(>  the 

of  a  distinguished  clergyman.     He  declared  that  sen'ice  of 

this  nation  was  founded  on  an  ideal,  and  that  the 

most   powerful   influences   in   its  life  to-day  are 

working  toward   noble   ideals.     The  moral  and 

spiritual  tone  of  the  country,  he  asserted,  is  higher 

than  ever,  in  spite  of  the  accidents  of  wealth  and 

poverty.     He   declared    that    the   great    host    of 

men    and    women    who   cherish    our   ideals   will 

continue  to  stamp  idealism  upon  the  minds  and 

hearts  of  our  youth,  and  that  they  in  turn  "will 

convert  wealth  to  the  service  of  ideals." 

Such  views  are  not  merely  the  expressions  of 

a  comfortable  optimist.     They  are   true  to  the 

facts  of  our  current   progress.     Tlioro   are  vast 


ideals" 


) 


It 


m&i^* 


m 


MICtOCOPV  RiSOWTION  TEST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0 


1.1 


1.25 


^  lif. 

■  2-5 

■K       14.0 

■  2.0 

■  1.8 
U     11.6 


^ 


/^PLIED  IN/I/C5E    Inc 

ISiJ  ea«t  Main  SlfMl 

Rochnlir.    Nm   York         U609       US* 

(718)   482  -  0300  -  Phon. 

(71S)   288  -  M89  -  Fo« 


170 

CHAP.  IV. 

Fertilizers 

and 

idealism 


Cotton 
mills  as 
evangels 


Poverty 
as  the 
common 
foe 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

portions  of  this  country  to-day  in  which  the  en- 
terprising   business    man    who    can    succeed    in 
seUing  to  the  farmers  an   honest   and  effective 
commercial   fertilizer   is   the   best   possible   mis- 
sionary of  idealism,  —  is,  in  fact,  a  veritable  angel 
for  the  spread   of  sweetness  and   light.     There 
are  regions  where  the  capitalist  or  the  company 
that  will  build  a  cotton  mill  or  some  other  kind 
of  factory   is  rescuing  whole  communities  from 
degradation.     It   is   poverty   that   has   kept   the 
South  so  backward,  and  it  is  poverty  alone  that 
explains  the   illiteracy   and   the   lawlessness   not 
merely  of  the  Kentucky  mountains,  but  of  great 
areas  in  other  .states  as  well.     Good  schools  can- 
not be  supported  in  regions  like  those,  for  the 
palpable   reason  that  the  taxable  wealth  of  an 
entire  school  district  cannot  yield  enough  to  pay 
the    salary    of    a    teacher.     But    when    modem 
business  invades  those  uplands,  utilizes  the  water 
power  now  wasted,  opens  the  mines,  builds  cot- 
ton factories     r  foundries,  the  situation  changes 
almost  as  if  by  magic. 

There  will,  indeed,  ensue  a  brief  period  of 
disturbance  due  to  changed  social  condition.— 
to  women  and  children  in  factories,  and  other 
things  of  incidental  or  serious  di.sadvantage.     But, 


ij 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


171 


as  against  a  survival  of  the  sort  of  life  that  was      chap.  iv. 
widely  prevalent  a  century  or  two  ago,  all  the  Magical 

phenomena  of  our  modern  industrial  life  make  ''"«"»/"'''«- 

.  ations 

their  appearance,  m  full  development.  The  one- 
room  cabin  gives  place  to  the  little  house  of 
several  rooms.  There  is  rapid  diffusion  of  those 
minor  comforts  and  agencies  which  make  for 
self-respect  and  personal  and  family  advance- 
ment. The  advent  of  capital,  that  is  to  say,  of 
taxable  property,  is  speedily  followed  by  the  good 
schoolhouse  and  the  good  teacher. 

It  is  instructive  to  note  the  transformation  that 
is  thus  taking  place  in  one  county  after  another 
of  the  Carolinas,  or  Georgia,  or  others  of  the 
Southern  states,  because  the  conditions  make  it  Best  seen 
possible  to  witness  within  a  single  decade  the  '"  ""^  "^^ 
triumph  of  those  business  forces  which,  while 
they  have  even  more  truly  and  completely  trans- 
formed the  prosperous  parts  of  America  and 
Europe,  have  operated  more  gradually  through 
longer  periods,  and  therefore  in  a  less  easily 
perceived  and  dramatic  fashion. 

Our  modern  ideals  have  required,  not  the 
refinement  and  the  culture  of  the  select  few,  but 
the  uplifting  and  progress  of  the  multitude.  This 
could  only  be  possible  through  a  general  devel- 


South 


i\ 


ill 


172 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Cost  of 
uplifting 
the  many 


The 

capitalist 
and  the 

community 
he  serves 


opment  of  wealth,  so  vast  in  comparison  with 
what  had  previously  existed  as  to  constitute  the 
most  highly  revolutionary  fact  in  the  history 
of  human  civilization  and  progress.  The  man, 
therefore,  who  has  a  clear  perception  of  those 
laws  of  mind  and  of  society  under  which  mod- 
ern economic  forces  have  been  set  at  work,  can- 
not for  a  moment  think  that  the  end  and  outcome 
of  this  modern  business  system  is  a  new  kind  of 
human  bondage,  "the  rich  growing  richer  and 
the  poor  growing  poorer";  or  that  it  can  mean 
any  such  thing  as  the  elevation  of  property  at 
the  expense  of  manhood. 

Even  if  it  were  a  part  of  my  subject  to  dis- 
cuss the  growth  of  vast  individual  fortunes  as  an 
incident  of  this  modern  development  of  wealth, 
which  it  is  not,  there  would  be  no  time  for  more 
than  a  passing  allusion.  And  in  making  such  an 
illusion,  I  might  be  content  to  call  attention  to 
my  earlier  dictum,  that  progress  is  not  upon 
direct  lines,  but  tangential  or  zigzag.  When  the 
factory  appears  on  the  Piedmont  slopes  of  the 
Appalachian  country,  it  may  indeed  .nakc  a 
fortune  for  the  missionary  of  civilization  who 
planted  it  there.  But  meanwhile  it  his  given 
the  whole  neighborhood  its  first  chance  to  relate 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


173 


CHAP.  IV. 


itself  to  the  civilized  world.  I  am  content  for 
the  present  to  leave  that  neighborhood  in  posses- 
sion of  its  opportunities,  serenely  confident  that 
it  will  in  due  time  work  out  its  own  completer 
destiny. 

When  the  capitalist  has  retired  from  the  scene 
of  his  exploitation,  will  the  day  arrive  when  the 
regenerated  neighborhood  will  own  that  factory, 
and  others,  too,  for  itself?  Very  likely.  In  any 
case,  the  neighborhood  has  been  emancipated 
from  its  worst  disadvantages. 

In  short,  I  have  little  doubt  but  that  the  further  A  teider 

progress  of  our  civilization  will  give  effect  to  cer-  «''■''"■'''"■ 
.  ,  lion  in- 

tain  economic  laws  and  tendencies,  and  to  certain  evitable 

social  rules  and  principles,  that  will  make  for  a 
higher  measure  of  equality  in  the  distribution  of 
realized  wealth.  Meanwhile,  wherever  a  practical 
step  can  be  taken  to  remedy  an  evil,  let  us  do 
what  we  can  to  promote  that  step.  I.^^t  us  recog- 
nize the  already  great  possibilities  for  useful  par- 
ticipation in  the  social  an<l  public  life  that  belong 
to  an  honorable  business  career. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  intellectual  interest 
of  the  young  man  going  into  business,  let  it  be 
borne  in  mind  that  there  are  scientific  principles 
underlying  every  branch   of  trade  or  commerce 


If  ! 


174 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


A    / 


CHAP.  IV. 


The  play  of 
fancy  in 
humdrum 
pursuits 


Intelli- 
gence and 
the 

genuine 
product 


or  industry,  and  that  there  is  almost,  if  not  quite, 
as   much   room   for  the   delightful   play   of  the 
faculty  of  imagination  in  the  successful  conduct 
of  a  soap  business  as  in  writing  poetry  or  in 
making  statuary  groups  for  world's  fairs.     The 
cultivation   of  public  spirit  in  the  broad  sense, 
and  the  determination  to  be  an  all-round  good 
and  eflRcient  citizen  and  member  of  the  commu- 
nity, will  often  help  a  man  amazingly  to  discern 
the  opportunities  for  usefulness  that  He  in  the 
direct    line    of    his    business    work.     The    more 
thoroughly    he    studies    underlying    principles  — 
whether  of  a  technical  sort  as  related  to  his  own 
trade,  or  of  a  general  sort  having  to  do  with  the 
organization  and  general  methods  of  commerce  — 
the  less  likely  he  will  be  to  take  narrow  and  anti- 
social views  of  business  life.     The  high  develop- 
ment of  his  intelligence  in  relation  to  his  own 
work  will  show  him  the  value  in  his  business  — 
as  in  all  else  in  life  —  of  the  standard  thing,  the 
genuine  thing  the  thing  that  will  bear  the  test  as 
contrasted  with  the  shoddy,  or  the  inferior,  or 
the  spurious. 

Our  technological  schools,  our  colleges  of  me- 
chanic arts,  our  institutes  of  agriculture  and  their 
relatetl  experiment  stations,  —  these  arc  all  teach- 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


175 


ing  us   many   valuable   object-lessons   regarding     chap.  iv. 

the  way  in  which  the  wealth  of  the  individual  Scientific 

and  that  of  the  community  can  both,  at  the  same  ^"'^^^  /^, 

*^  material 

time,  be  advanced  by  scientific  methods.     Thus  progress 
it  is  coming  about  that  business  life  is  e\er  more 
ready  to  welcome  the  most  highly  trained  kinds 
of  intelligence,  inasmuch  as  it  is  perceived  that 
specialized    knowledge    is   henceforth   to   be   the 
most  valuable  commodity  that  a  man  can  possess. 
I  have  already  said  that  the  delicate  problems 
of  distribution  must  be  faced  ever  more  frankly 
and    liberally    by    the    modern    business    world. 
Thus,  those  who  control  capital,  or  administer 
capitalized  enterprises,  cannot  afford  any  longer 
to  be  without  a  knowledge  of  the  history  and 
significance  of  the  labor  movement.     I  am  speak- 
ing now  from  the  standpoint  of  the  business  man. 
There  is  much  to  be  said,  <loubtIess,  in  respect   Labor's 
to  the  shortcomings  and  the  sometimes  fatuous  history  and 
and  even  suicidal  methods  of  the  labor  organiza-     ^^^''"^ 
tions.     But   for  the  modern   business  man  who 
cares  to  take  his  place  influentially  in  commerce, 
in  social  life,  and  as  a  man  among  men  in  his 
city  or  his  commonwealth,  it  is  no  longer  justifi- 
able to  be  unfamiliar  with  the  labor  question  in 
its  economics  and  its  historv. 


i 


M.' 


176 

CHAP.  IV. 

The 
higher 
schools  can 
train  in 
principles 


The 

university 

and 

modern 

life 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

Herein  lies  one  great  service  that  the  univer- 
sity can  perform  (and  our  best  colleges  and  uni- 
versities are  to-day  performing  it  with  marked 
intelligence  and  ability),  the  service,  namely,  of 
providing  very  liberal  courses  for  young  men  who 
expect  to  go  into  business,  in  the  general  science 
of  economics,  in  the  history  of  modern  economic 
progress,  in  the  development  of  the  wage  system, 
in  the  hi.story  and  methods  of  organized  labor, 
and  in  very  much  else  that  helps  to  place  the  life 
of  a  practical   man   of  business  affairs  upon  a 
broad  and  liberal  basis.    In  the  early  days  of 
our  history  it  was  the  especial  function  of  the 
college  to  train  young  men  for  the  ministry.     In 
a  somewhat  later  period  it  was  notably  true  of 
institutions  like  Yale  and  Princeton  that  their 
training  see-ned  to  fit  many  men  for  the  law  and 
for  statecraft.     We  had,  you   see,   passed  from 
that  theocratic  phase  of  colonial  New  England 
life  to  the   political  constructive  period  of  our 
young  republic. 

But  we  have  been  passing  on  until  we  have 
emerged  in  a  great  and  transcendent  period  of 
commercial  expansion  and  scientific  discovery 
and  application.  It  is  a  hopeful  sign,  therefore, 
that  our  univer=aies  are  finding  out  and  admitting 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


177 


CHAP.  IV. 


the  demand  that  present-day  conditions  impose, 
and  are  training  many  men  in  the  pursuit  of 
modern  science,  while  they  are  training  many 
others  in  the  understanding  of  the  apphcation  of 
social  and  economic  principles  to  modern  life. 
All  this  they  are  doing  and  can  well  do  without 
ignoring  the  value  of  the  older  forms  of  scholar- 
ship and  culture. 

But  I  have  a  few  remarks  to  make  also  upon 
the  ethical  relations  of  the  business  world  of  to- 
day toward  the  political  w^orld;  that  is  to  say, 
toward  organized  government,  whether  in  its 
sovereign  or  in  its  subordinate  forms.  We  can- 
not take  too  high  a  ground  in  proclaiming  the 
value,  for  the  present,  at  least,  of  the  political 
organization  of  society.     I  should  like  to  dwell   The  State 

upon  this  point,  but  I  must  merely  state  it.     If  ""''  "''  ^"*' 

claims 

the  State,  —  i.e.  the  political  form  of  social  or- 
ganization —  is  valuable,  it  stands  to  reason  that 
it  must  be  respected  and  maintained  at  its  best. 
It  is  also  obvious  that  it  will  have  a  higher  or  a 
lower  character  and  efficiency,  according  to  the 
attitude  toward  it  taken  by  one  or  another  of 
the  dominant  factors  that  make  up  the  complex 
body  politic. 

Thus,  for  example,  it  is  the  feeling  of  men  in 


178 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  IV. 

Xeed  of 
loyalty  to 
govern- 
ment 


Business 
forces 
must  be 
patriotic 


Public 
interests  too 
often  in 
weak  hands 


control  of  the  political  organization  in  France 
to-day  that  the  Church,  as  a  great  factor  in  the 
social  structure  of  the  nation,  is  essentially  hostile 
to  the  spirit  and  purposes  of  a  liberal  republic. 
Hence  a  great  disturbance  of  various  relation- 
ships. I  do  not  cite  that  instance  to  express 
even  the  shade  of  an  opinion.  My  poiit  is  that 
if  the  political  organization  of  society  is  desirable 
and  to  be  maintained,  it  is  a  fortunate  thing  vsrhen 
one  finds  the  dominant  forces  of  society  render- 
ing loyal  and  faithful  support  to  the  laws  and  in- 
stitutions of  government  and  recognizing  without 
reserve  the  sovereignty  of  the  State.  Yet  in  our 
own  country  there  is  a  widespread  feeling  that 
many  of  the  most  potent  forces  and  agencies  in 
our  business  life  are  not  wholly  patriotic,  in  that 
they  are  not  willing  in  practice  to  recognize  the 
necessity  of  the  domination  of  government  and 
of  law.  I  do  not  believe  that  this  is  permanently 
and  generally  true.  It  would  constitute  a  great 
danger  if  it  were  a  fixed  or  a  growing  tendency. 

As  matters  stand,  however,  every  one  must 
admit  that  there  is  an  element  of  danger  that  lies 
in  the  verj'  fact  that  as  a  nation  we  are  in  a  con- 
dition of  peace,  content,  and  prosperity,  and  do 
not  find  our  political  institutions  irksome.     The 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


179 


danger  consists  in  this:   that  under  such  circum-      chap.  iv. 

stances  the  rewards  of  business  and  professional 

hfe  are  for  the  most  part  so  much  more  certain 

and  satisfactory  than  those  which  come  from  the 

precarious  pursuit  of  politics,  that  public  interests 

have  a  tendency  to  suffer  from  being  in  weak 

hands,  while  private  interests  have  a  tendency  to 

assert  themselves  unduly,  from  being  in  the  hands 

of  men  of  superior  force.     Thus  it  happens  that   State's 

it  is  often  difficult  for  the  State  to  maintain  that   '"''«'«'"J/ 
J.      ..       ,,     .  ,        .  must  be 

dignity,  that  mastery,  that  high  position,  as  the  maintained 

impartial  arbiter  and  dispenser  of  justice,  which 
it  is  now  even  more  necessarj'  than  ever  that  it 
should  maintain,  in  order  that  the  whole  social 
organization  should  keep  a  true  harmony  and  a 
safe  balance. 

At  present,  the  State  is  largely  concerned  // 
with  the  maintenance  of  conditions  under  win.  h  f  '"^fsAes 
the  economic  and  business  life  may  (>|«  rate 
equally  and  prosperously.  The  State  in  one 
sense  is  the  master  of  the  people.  In  another 
sense  it  is  merely  their  creature  and  their  agent 
for  such  purposes  as  they  choose  to  assign  it. 
Is  the  State,  then,  to  absorb  the  industrial  func- 
tions, and  are  we  to  develop  into  a  socialistic 
commonwealth?     Or,  shall  the  political  democ- 


iriis- 

ty 


''III 


.1. 

I 

v.. 


m 

J 
I 


180 


CHAP.  IV. 


Rusinesii 
interests 
need  strong 
goicrn- 
ment 


Vital  to 

economic 

progress 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

racy  and  the  cooperative  organization  of  busine.ss 
life  go  on  side  by  side,  related  at  many  points, 
hut  in  the  main  distinct  from  each  other  ?  What- 
ever the  relation  of  the  State  to  industry  may  be 
destined  to  become  in  the  distant  future,  we  may 
be  sure  that  there  will  be  no  rash  upheavals, 
no  harmful  socialistic  experiments,  if  the  potent 
business  world  clearly  sees  how  necessary  to  its 
own  salvation  it  is  that  the  State  shall  be  main- 
tained upon  a  high  plane  of  dignity  and  honor,  and 
that  the  official  'li.spensation  of  justice,  as  well 
as  the  official  administration  of  the  laws,  shall  be 
prompt,  just,  and  impartial. 

There  is  no  higher  duty,  therefore,  incumbent 
upon  the  business  man  of  to-day  than  to  bear  his 
part  in  promoting  and  maintaining  the  purity  of 
political  life.     The  modern  business  man  should 
regard    good    government    as    one    of    the   vital 
conditions  of   the  best  economic   progress.     Yet 
scores   of    instances   are   at   hand   that    show  to 
what  a  painful  extent  certain  business  interests 
again  and  again,  for  purposes  of  immediate  ad- 
vantage, —  to  secure  a  franchise,  to  escape  a  tax, 
or  to  procure  some  improper  favor  or  advantage 
at  the  hands  of  those  in  political  authority,— 
have  employed  corrupt  methods  and  thus  stained 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


181 


municipal 


the  fair  cscutrlioon  of  American  l)u.siness  honor,      chap.  iv. 
while  breaking  down  the  one  most  indisjieiisahle 
condition  of  general  business  progress ;    namely, 
honest  and  efficient  free  government. 

I    will    not    dwell    upon    these    things.     It    is   Better 

enough  to  say  that  they  are  things  the  modern 

"  govcrn- 

business  man  must  have  upon  his  conscience,  ment 
For,  if  such  offenses  come  by  way  of  the  business 
world,  their  remedies  must  also  come,  and  in- 
deed can  only  come,  by  that  same  path.  In  our 
municipal  life,  for  example,  it  is  the  aroused 
interest  and  zeal  of  the  best  business  community 
for  better  government  and  better  conditions  that 
can  alone  produce  important  results.  Happily, 
all  over  the  country  we  find  chambers  of  com- 
merce, boards  of  trade,  merchants'  associations.    The  civic 

and   other  bodies  of  men   of  practical  business  '^"' 

«...  busi, 

affairs,  taking  their  stand  for  the  transaction  of  men 

public  business  upon  high  standards  of  character 
and  efficiency.  I  have  no  doubt  or  fears  as  to 
what  the  result  will  be.  All  of  our  large  cities 
are  themselves  purely  the  creations  of  nKxlern  in- 
dustrial, commercial,  and  transportation  condi- 
tions. And  I  hold  that  these  ver}-  forces  of  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  life  that  have  created  the 
problems  by  bringing  together  great   masses  of 


duty  of 
isiness 


' 


182 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


I 


\' 


CHAP.  IV. 


I'     t 


■i 


What  can 
be  done 
for  the 
towns 


A  field 
especially 
for  tnen 
of  affairs 


people  in  crowded  communities,  must  and  can 
in  turn  solve  the  problems  by  the  application  to 
municipal  government  of  the  scientific  and  in- 
telligent principles  which  belong  to  the  best 
phases  of  business  life. 

All  of  this  relates  to  my  subject;   but  I  must 
pass  it  by  with  a  mere  statement  or  two.     It  be- 
longs to  the  developed  constructive  imagination 
and  to  the  trained  ethical  sense  of  the  modem 
business  man  to  perfect  the  transit  systems,  to 
improve  the  housing  conditions,  to  assure  cheap 
sanitary  water  supplies,  cheap  illumination,  and, 
above  all,  due  orovision  for  universal  education, 
parks,   museums,   and   opportunities  for  recrea- 
tio..,  —  in  short,  all  possible  improvements  of  en- 
vironment that  can  make  life  in  our  cities  not 
merely  endurable  but  beneficial  for  the  people. 
Here,  then,   is   furnished   a  great   field   for  the 
definite  and  conscious  aspirations  of  the  success- 
ful man  of  business.     Here  lies  a  great,  many- 
sided    work    for    social    and    moral    as    well    as 
physical  and  material  progress  which  the  busi- 
ness man,  in  the  ciuality  of  gootl  citizen  and  man 
of  public  spirit,  is  fitted  better  than  any  one  else 
to  accomplish. 

The  intelligent  young  man  who  holds  before 


THE  BUSINESS  CAREER 


183 


liirnself  ideals  of  usefulness  that  extend  to  such      chap.  iv. 
projects  as  these,  may  be  sure  that  the  modern   The  great 
conditions  of  life  will  bring  him  great  opportuni-  opportuni- 
ties, and  he  may  feel  that  he  is  thus  lifting  his  ^yZnyZen 
business  career  up  to  the  plane  of  idealism  that 
has,  in  the  past,   been  reser\ed  for  a  few  exclu- 
sive professions.     Partly  through  his  own  endeav- 
ors—largely through  association  in    commercial 
or  other  organizations  with    his   neighbors  —  he 
may  help  to  accomplish  for  the  benefit  of  all  his 
fellow-men  of  a  great  community  one  step  after 
another  in  the  direction  of  public  works  that  will 
meet  the  needs  of  a  high  civilization. 

Some  of  the  most  useful  men,  as  well  as  the   The  high 

most  unselfish  and  devoted,  with  whom  I  come  '■""  "-^ 

Aimriran 
m  contact  are  successful  business  men  of  larLfc  business 

affairs.  They  are  nuxlest  and  unassuming;  '""" 
simple  and  direct  in  their  metluKls;  wide  as 
the  world  in  their  sympathies;  lofty  as  the  stars 
in  their  aspirations  for  hunuui  progress;  saga- 
cious beyond  other  classes  of  men,  and  resjx'cted  to 
the  point  of  veneration  by  those  who  know  them 
well,  because  they  are  men  of  deeds  rather  than 
of  words,  who  make  gcxxl  their  professions  from 
day  to  day.  Business  has  not  so  ruirn)wed  them, 
nor  has  devotion  to  philanthropic  ends  or  public 


til 


.  ( 


; 


1- 


184  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  IV.      reforms  so  distorted   their  mental  visions,  that 
they  are  not  able  to  enjoy  what  is  good  in  life, 
whether  books,  music,  pictures,  the  companion- 
ship of  friends,  or  the  restful  contact  with  nature 
in  field  and  forest. 
The  ethics        The    lives    of    such    men    are    dominated    by 
of  action       pertain     fixed     ethical     standards.     Given     such 
moral  landmarks,  the  remarkable  conditions  and 
unequaled  opportunities  of  modern  business  life 
will  promote  the  frequent  development  of  men  of 
this  kind,  with  their  breadth  of  view  and  strength 
of  mind  and  character.     It  is  the  positive  and 
aggressive  attitude  toward  life,  the  ethics  of  ac- 
tion, rather  than  the  ethics  of  negation,  that  must 
control  the  modern  business  world,  and  that  may 
make  our  modern  business  man  the  most  potent 
factor  for  good  in  this,  his  own,  industrial  period. 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES 
UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


'i?' 


it! 


V  ': 


1 1  (I 


I*' 


.l*: 


fj 


CHAPTER  V 

JEFFERSON'S   DOCTRINES  UNDER 
NEW  TESTS 

In  1904  there  was  held  at  St.  Louis  a  great   Some 


historical 
anniversa- 
ries 


exposition  whose  object  it  was  to  exemplify  the 
amazing  progress  that  Mr.  Jefferson  foresaw  as 
a  result  of  his  acquisition  of  the  trans-Mississippi 
country.  In  the  following  year  there  was  a 
creditable  exposition  in  Oregon  to  commemorate 
the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  Jefferson's  ex- 
pedition under  command  of  Lewis  and  Clark. 
In  1907  comes  the  celebration  of  the  noteworthy 
completion  of  three  hundred  years  of  English- 
speaking  men  in  the  commonwealth  of  Virginia. 

In    these    commemorations    of    the    opening  Jefferson 

decade  of  our  twentieth  century,  Mr.  Jefferson  °*  """ 

leading 
stands  forth  as  in  many  respects  the  iiiost  con-  figure 

spicuous  figure.  A  multiplicity  of  speeches, 
brochures,  biographical  studios,  and  historical  re- 
views of  the  Jeffersonian  perio<l  has  within  recent 

187 


■  ^1 


188 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


I 

r    ' 

r     '  * 


The 

vitality  of 
his  doc- 
trines 


His  long 
career 


Excep- 
tional 
training 
for  Presi- 
dency 


years  attested  the  marked  revival  of  interest  in 
the  career  of  this  eminent  Virginian.  I  could 
not  hope  to  add  anything,  not  indeed  so  much 
as  a  single  suggestion,  concerning  Mr.  Jefferson's 
personality  or  public  career  to  that  which  has 
become  the  common  stock  of  knowledge  in 
Virginia,  where  the  great  sons  of  the  common- 
Avealth  are  kept  in  memory  by  accomplished 
speakers  and  writers.  All  that  I  shall  venture  to 
do  is  to  attempt  some  reflections  upon  what  I 
may  call  the  carrying  power  and  the  vitality  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  political  opinions  and  doctrines. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  agree  with  every  opinion 
Mr.  Jefferson  ever  expressed,  or  to  applaud  every 
attitude  or  act  of  his  public  career,  in  order  to 
be  counted  among  those  who  admire  him  sincerely 
and  profoundly,  and  who  find  his  writings  a 
marvelous  repository  of  political  wisdom  and 
knowledge.  His  was  a  ver\'  long  period  of  active 
statesmanship  and  public  influence.  That  period 
reached  its  zenith  in  the  first  term  of  his  incum- 
bency of  the  office  of  President,  about  a  hundred 
years  ago.  He  entered  the  Presidency  with  a 
thoroughness  of  training  and  a  ripeness  of  ex- 
perience beyond  that  of  any  other  man  who  has 
ever  attained   this  high   oflBce.     As  might  have 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


189 


been  expected,  his  first  inaugural  address  was 
one  of  great  dignity  and  elevation  of  sentiment, 
—  a  stately  utterance,  a  model  and  a  classic  in 
form  and  in  breadth  and  serenity  of  view.  He 
had  been  called  to  guide  the  affairs  of  what  he 
described  as  "  a  rising  nation,  spread  over  a  wide 
and  fruitful  land,  traversing  all  the  seas  with  the 
rich  productions  of  their  industry,  engaged  in 
commerce  with  nations  who  feel  power  and  forget 
right,  advancing  rapidly  to  destinies  beyond  the 
reach  of  mortal  eye." 

It  was,  indeed,  a  wide  and  fruitful  land.  But 
Mr.  Jefferson  himself  was  ordained  by  Providence 
to  make  it  vastly  wider,  and  in  many  ways  to 
enhance  its  fruitfulness.  Our  population  at  that 
time  was  only  a  little  more  than  five  millions,  and 
our  domain  was  bounded  by  the  Mississippi  River 
on  the  west,  and  by  the  European  colonies  of 
Florida  and  Louisiana  on  the  south.  He  lived 
to  see  our  population  grow  to  about  twelve  mil- 
lions, with  the  Florida  Purchase  consummated 
and  with  every  reason  to  believe  that  in  due  time 
the  joint  occupation  of  the  Oregon  country  by 
the  United  States  and  England  would  terminate 
in  our  acknowledged  control  of  the  region  trav- 
ersed  by  Lewis  and    Clark  all   the  way  to  the 


CHAP.  v. 


A  forecast 
of  Ameri- 
can desti- 
nies 


Expansion 
in  Jeffer- 
son's time 


Growth 
that  he 
promoted 


iti 


•1 


1! 


I' 


190 

CHAP.  V. 

His  nVic.s- 
and  his 
deeds 


He  looked 
forward 


His  use  of 

politienl 

history 


Our 

present 
situation 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

Pacific  Ocean.  But,  as  I  have  said,  it  is  Mr. 
Joffojson's  views  rather  than  his  achievements 
that  belong  to  my  theme. 

Though  of  a  philosophical  and  reflective  habit, 
and  himself  a  diligent  student  of  the  past  ex- 
perience of  men  grouped  in  political  communities, 
Mr.  Jefferson's  own  eyes  were  usually  turned 
forward  rather  than  backward.  His  was  an 
eminently  practical  mind;  and  he  used  history 
<'hicfly  as  the  touchstone  by  which  to  test  current 
opinions  and  tendencies  for  the  sake  of  an  ever- 
hotter  future.  All  political  principles  and  theories, 
all  the  histor)-  of  the  past,  all  the  implements 
and  metho<ls  of  statecraft,  were  studied  by  Mr. 
•Icfferson  with  the  one  concrete  object  of  enabling 
him  and  his  colleagues  (to  quote  from  that  same 
inaugural  address),  "to  steer  with  safety  the  vessel 
in  which  we  are  all  embarked  amidst  the  con- 
flicting elements  of  a  troubled  world." 

Now,  just  as  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  examined 
the  doctrines  of  the  English  and  French  phi- 
losophers, humanitarians,  and  economists,  with 
a  view  to  the  establishment  of  his  own  opinions, 
so  I  find  myself  at  present  disposed  to  consider 
not  so  much  the  problems  that  lay  before  our 
countrymen   a   hundred   years  ago  as  our  own 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


191 


problems  of  to-day,  except  as  those  of  the  former 
period  may  have  some  hearing  upon  the  issues 
that  confront  us  now  as  we  have  fairly  crossed 
the  threshold  of  a  new  century  and  are  casting 
about  us  for  wise  courses,  still  finding  ourselves 
"amidst  the  conflicting  elements  of  a  troubled 
world."  And  I  have  asked  myself,  What  valid, 
trustworthy,  and  still  enduring  basis  have  the 
principles  of  Mr.  Jefferson  as  applied  to  our  own 
present  and  immediate  future  ? 

Have  we  outlived  his  generalizations?  Was 
he,  to  a  large  extent,  superficial  and  specious? 
Was  he  a  doctrinaire  in  a  sense  that  should  now 
cause  us  to  distrust  his  practical  conclusions? 
Was  he  sentimental  and  visionarj'?  Was  he 
hasty  in  pronouncing  radical  and  sweeping  ver- 
dicts? Did  he  allow  his  love  of  glittering  ex- 
pressions and  abstract  dicta  to  impair  his  judg- 
ment? Did  he  reason  to  permanent  conclusions 
from  isolated  instances  or  merely  transient  phe- 
nomena, and  thus  violate  scientific  methods? 

Political  philosophers  come  and  go.  Half 
a  dozen  new  ones,  who  were  the  vogue  ien  or 
twenty,  or  even  five,  years  ago,  are  now  confessedly 
obsolete.  They  do  not  stand  the  test  of  time. 
"Vet  there  must  be  some  principles   of   govern- 


CHAP.  V. 


Do  the 
Jifffrao- 
nian  prin- 
ciples r,till 
apply? 


The 

question 

stated 


The  pass- 
ing of  po- 
litical  phi- 
losophers 


i 

.'  -'■• 

192 

I: 

M  J 

CHAP. 

Outward 
changes 
since 
Jefferson 


What 
landmarks 
can  we 
keep  f 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

ment,  of  national  policy,  of  social  and  political 
ethics,  approaching  nearly  enough  to  essential 
truth  and  justice  to  meet  the  fluctuations  of  at 
least  one  century,  and  to  hold  some  rightful  claim 
to  popular  confidence  and  allegiance.  Men  must 
hold  by  some  opinions;    what,  then,  shall   they 

be? 

Many  things  in  outward  circumstances  have 
changed  more  profoundly  in  the  past  one  hundred 
years  than  in  a  thousand  years  preceding.     The 
production  of  wealth,  for  example,  has  been  greater 
by  far  since  the  death  of  Mr.  Jefferson  than  were 
the  total  accumulations  of  the  world  through  all 
the  ages  down  to  that  date.     Moreover,  there  has 
been  most  mar\'elous  developmen    of  population; 
and  every  one  feels  that  we  arc  entering  upon  new 
and  unknown  periods  of  transition  at  an  ever- 
accelerating    pace.     What    landmarks    can    we 
keep  in  view,  or  by  what  charts  and  compasses 
shall  we  be  guided  as  we  embark  on  momentous 
new    voyages?     In    these    inquiries,    I    have    in 
mind,  not  so  much  the  world  at  large  as  the  people 
of  the  United  States;    and  I  have  particularly 
in  mind  two  or  three  lines  of  questioning.     One 
of  these  has  to  do  with  our  national  position  and 
policy,  as  respects  other  nations  and  the  world 


\      I 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 

at  large.  Another,  with  some  of  our  internal 
problems  of  government  and  politics,  and  per- 
haps a  third,  with  the  economic  and  social  status 
of  the  individual  citizen  —  the  outlook,  so  to 
speak,  for  the  average  man  under  fast-changing 
methods  of  production  and  distribution.  And 
a  fourth  might  have  to  do  with  the  relation  of  the 
State  itself  to  industry  and  economic  society. 

Further,  in  alluding  to  some  of  these  present- 
day  problems,  I  would  like  to  make  test,  inci- 
dentally, at  least,  of  the  doctrines  and  opinions 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  to  see  if  they  hold  good,  and 
if  Jeffersc  still  entitled  to  be  looked  upon  as  a 
prophet  auG  a  guide.  I  shall  not  try  to  '•  any 
rhetorical  art  whatsoever  to  heighten  the 
of  my  own  conclusions  as  respects  the  essential 
qualities  of  the  body  of  political  doctrine  taught 
by  Mr.  Jefferson ;  and  I  shall  make  haste,  there- 
fore, to  anticipate  some  more  detailed  avowals 
by  declaring  in  advance,  and  in  general  terms, 
ray  strong  belief  in  Mr.  Jefferson  as  an  endu  ag 
prophet. 

I  find  myself  wondering  again  and  again  how 
that  fine  and  lucid  intelligence  of  his  could,  by  the 
time  he  was  thirty  years  okl,  in  provincial  Virginia, 
a  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago,   have  become 


193 

CHAP.  V. 


Public  and 

private 

outlooks 


Jefferson 
as  an 
enduring 
prophet 


An  eman- 
cipated 
mind 


i    I 


>; 


1:1 


IJ  .i' 


i; 


194 

CHAP.  V. 

Freshness 

and 

modernity 


Across  the 
m  iddle 
period 


Some 
compari- 
sons 


More 

recent  than 
Webster  or 
Calhoun 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

so   perfectly  emancipated.     When  to-day   I   re- 
read his  utterances,  the  one  thing  that  impresses 
me  above  all  else  is  the  freshness,  the  modernity, 
of  his  way  of  looking  at  everything.     The  open- 
ness and  the  freedom  of  his  mental  processes  seem 
to  bring  him  across  the  chasm  of  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  to  a  place  with  thinkers 
like  John  Stuart  Mill  and  Huxley  at  their  best 
period.     Since  Jefferson's  time,  we  have  had  few 
public  men  of  large  vision.     At  least  these  later 
statesmen,  if  endowed  by  nature  wit*"     i^vacity 
to    formulate    principles,    have    not    enj  yed    as 
favorable    opportunities.     They    have    been    in- 
volved in  controversies  over  immediate  issues,  and 
have  been  in  the  position  of  men  in  the  thick 
of  the  woods,  hinderec  by  the  trees  from  seeing 
the  forest.     Compared  w..  i  Jefferson,  in  practical 
statesmanship,    John    Bright    seems    a    limited 
though  a  congenial  spirit;    and  Mr.  Gladstone, 
a    similarly    versatile    and   capacious    mind   but 
with  prejudices  of  class  and  creed  that  yielded 
only  painfully  and  slowly  through  a  half  century 
of  experience.     Our  own  Websters  and  Calhouns 
and  Clays  seem  merely  a  part  of  a  past  epoch. 
Jefferson's  thinking  seems  to  reach  to  the  things 
of  to-day,  while  those  men  of  the  forties  and  fifties 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


195 


appear  almost  as  remote  as  the  figures  of  Plutarch's       chap.  v. 
time.     Lincoln's   thought   had,   doubtless,   mucii  Lincoln 
of  the  quality  that  survives,  and,  among  our  later  "^^ 
men,  I  think  you  will  some  day  give  a  larger  place 
to  Seward  than  either  North  or  South  has  yet 
accorded  him.     But  for  flexibility  of  mind,  and 
for  perennial  freslmess  of  doctrinr  and  statement, 
it  seems  to  me  Jefferson  must  sf.ll  bear  the  palm. 
It    must    be    remembered    that    the    launchin<' 
of  a  new  and  powerful  nation  has  not  been  a  fre- 
quent  occurrence   in   the   history   of  the   world. 
The  erection  of  a  sovereign  State  to  take  its  place    The  mak- 
as  a  member  of  the  family  of  nations  has  almost   '"»o/a 
invariably  been  a  matter  of  sheer  force,  of  blo^niy  ""'""* 
I  violence,  of  titanic  struggle,  rather  than  one  of  a 

h  calm    and    philosophic    shaping    of    political    in- 

[  stitutions.     Thus,    never    elsewhere    has    either 

I  the  forming  of  a  new  State  or  the  political  re- 

making of  an  old  one  been  accompanied  by  any 
such   magnificent   setting  forth   of  the   practical   Doctrine 

,|  and    theoretical    principles    of    government,    of  '"''"'■ 

l|  „   I'..  t    •      •  1  »    .  .  formative 

Jl  politics,    of  jurisprudence,   of   international   law,  period 

and  of  foreign  and   domestic  statesmanship,  as 

that  which  attended  the  formative  period  in  the 

United  States. 

During  this  memorable  period,  George  Wash- 


il!  'i 


't 


H;ifll 


196 

CHAP.  V. 

Washing- 
ton and 
Jefferson 


Hamilton 
and  others 


Conditions 
th:il  pro- 
duced great 
men 


n 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

ington  held  the  first  place  as  a  man  of  action  and 
of  noble  and  sagacious  leadership,  while  in  all 
deference  it  may  be  said  that  he  held  second  place 
as  a  man  of  reflection  and  as  the  exponent  of 
distinctively    American    opinion.     His    colleague 
and  friend,  Thomas  Jefferson,  held  a  place  second 
to  Washington  only  as  a  leader  in  actual  affairs, 
and  a  place  unquestionably  the  very  first  as  a 
formulator  of  opinion  and  an  exponent  of  our 
American  system  of  popular  democratic  govern- 
ment.    And  all  this  I  say,  without  abatement  of 
one  particle  of  the  admiration  I  entertain  for  the 
jMJwerful  statesmanship  of  Alexander  Hamilton, 
for  the  learning  and  persuasive  logic  of  James 
Madison,  for  the  wisdom  and  greatness  of  John 
Jay,  and  for  the  constructive  intellect  and  price- 
less   services    of    John    Marshall.     How    many 
others  there  were  in  that  noble  company  of  Ameri- 
cans, many  of  them  young  men,  who  were  brought 
to  great  elevation  of  view,  as  evinced   in  their 
work  in  the  Continental  Congress,  then  later  in 
the  discussions  that  controlled  the  framing  and 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  in  the  executive, 
ie'Mslative,  and  judicial  acts  and  decisions,  and 
the  diplomacy,  of  the  peri«Kl  that  ended,  let  us 
say,  with  the  death  of  Thomas  Jefferson  and  John 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


197 


of  circum- 
stances 


Adams,  who  passed  away  on  the  same  Fourth  of       chap.  v. 
July,  in  the  year  1826. 

Of  some  of  these  men  —  as  of  Washington,  The  force 
and  perhaps  Hamilton  —  it  must  be  said  that 
they  were  "born  great."  Most  of  them  had 
"greatness  thrust  upon  them"  by  the  sheer  force 
of  circumstances  that  developed  their  best  capaci- 
ties. These  men  were  compelled  to  study  the 
position  of  their  young  republic,  both  as  regards 
its  domestic  structure,  and  also  as  related  to  tlie 
world  at  large,  in  a  period  when  the  struggles 
and  convulsions  of  Europe  were  stirring  men's 
minds  and  causing  them  to  see  things  in  new  lights, 
with  renunciation  of  old  prejudices.  Thus  they 
were  lifted  above  the  commonplace.  It  was  im- 
possible to  go  on  in  ruts.  Jefferson  and  Benja- 
min Franklin  must,  I    think,  in   anv  case,  have  '""^ 

'  Franklin 

achieved  greatness  without  the  stimulus  of  ex- 
ceptional circumstances,  through  the  inherent 
power  of  minds  of  rare  energy  and  of  still  more 
rare  versatility  —  to  which,  in  both  cases,  was 
added  the  gift  of  abstract  and  philosophical  rt^a- 
soning,  and,  finally,  a  touch  of  that  something 
we  call  genius  and  do  not  try  to  explain. 

In  the  very  nature  of  things  a  new  English- 
speaking  coinnionwealth.  emerging  in  that   par- 


Jefferson 


I  J 
•I 


n 


198 

CHAP.  V. 

The  earlier 
time  and 
its  doc- 
trines 


This  Inter 
time  in 
compari- 
son 


Need  of 
some  guid 
ing  prin- 
ciples 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

ticular   period,  must  have  formulated  for  itself 
some  doctrines  and  general  opinions.     The  cir- 
cumstances were  of  a  well-balanced  sort  as  re- 
spects what  one  may  call  the  relative  exigences 
of  domestic  and   foreign   problems.      Thus   our 
statesmen  were  able  to  work  out  schemes,  both 
of  doctrine  and  of  piartical  policy,  that  in  spite 
of  vicissitudes  and  pr-  found  changes  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  have  had  momentum  enough  to 
project  themselves,  without  much  serious  deflec- 
tion, across  the  line  of  a  new  century.     And  now, 
if  I  mistake  not,  the  country  has  reached  a  junc- 
ture where  once  more  the  relative  exigencies   of 
domestic  and  external  problems  not  only  permit 
us  but  also  compel  us  to  try  again  to  take  our 
bearings   as   respects   underlying   principles   and 
national  attitudes  and  policies. 

To   the    wholesome    and    normal    mind    some 
principles  and  creeds  are  necessarj- —  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  to  ser%e  as  a  working  hypothesis. 
And  it  is  eminently  true  in  the  conduct  of  public 
affairs,  that  for  wise  results  there  must  be  some 
admitted    principles    of    government    and    some 
fixed  landmarks  of  policy.     Other^vise.  disastrous 
mistakes  will  be  made  and  recognized  only  too 
late.     The  word  policy,  as  applied  to  a  nation's 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


199 


aflFairs,  though  broad  enough  to  include  all  gen-       chap.  v. 
eral  and  fixed  trends  of  action,  may  well  be  re-  p^ucy  and 

stricted  to  external  relationships.     In  my  use  of  Us  mean- 

ing 
it  I  have  in  mind  more  particularly  the  intentions 

and  aspirations,  as  well  as  the  actual  conduct, 
of  a  nation,  in  its  dealings  with  other  countries 
and  its  plans  as  to  the  world  at  large. 

For  some  countr'-  ,  the  problems  of  foreign  Foreign 
policy  are  so  delicate  and  difficult  that  they  can-  ^^  "^^ 
not  very  well  be  discussed  openly.  Thus  at 
times  British,  German,  and  Russian  policy  must 
be  learned  by  inference  rather  than  by  any  frank 
or  r  )onsible  avoN.al.  The  United  States  in 
this  n-spect  hps  occupied  a  favorable  and  fortu- 
nate position,  and  we  have  usually  found  it  to 
be  both  safe  and  wise  to  discuss  freely  and  openly 
the   principles  having  to  do  with   our   relations 

toward  other  C3untries.     During  the  past  cmtury   The  Man- 

.         .        I  foe  Doc- 

American  policy  has  had  its  pivot  m  what  we  com-  ^^^ 

monly  call  the  "  Monroe  Doctrine,"  and  what  the 

Europea-    nations    refer    to    as    "Monroeism." 

Those  who  find   it  sufficient,   in  discussing  the 

Monroe  Doctrine,  to  recall  the  exact  wording  of  a 

particular  utterance  formulated  by  John  (^uincy 

Adams,  as  Secretary  of  State  in  President  Monrm-'s 

second  administration,  fail  to  appreciate  the  under- 


1 

i 


! 


200 


CHAP.  V. 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


The  real 
author  of 
the  doc- 
trine 


lying  fact.  This  precise  utterance  did  not  make 
The  under-  °"'"  American  policy,  but  was  simply  a  timely 
lying  fact  and  valuable  expression  of  a  policy  that  had  been 
shaping  itself  for  a  quarter  of  a  centurv*  previ- 
ous, that  had  found  a  partial  —  and,  in  so  far, 
authoritative — expression  in  Washington's  fare- 
well address. 

If  I  have  studied  aright  the  history  of  American 
policy,  it  was  Thomas  Jefferson,  as  Washington's 
fii.  Secretary  of  State,  and  as  our  foremost  ex- 
ponent of  national  doctrine  and  principle,  who 
—  incomparably  more  than  any  one  else  — 
thought  out,  developed,  and  expressed  the  ideas 
that  we  have  in  mind  when  we  mention  the  Monroe 
Doctrine.  It  was  he  whose  teachings  made  this 
doctrine  the  one  <5reat  fixed  landmark  to  guide 
us  in  our  relations  with  the  world  at  large. 

As  the  Louisiana  Purchase  was  the  foremost 
single  act  of  domestic  statesmanship  in  our 
national  history  during  the  last  centurj',  so  the 
evolution  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  the  one 
great  feature  of  our  statesmanship  as  it  dealt 
with  external  affairs.  It  was  an  achievement 
of  such  overshadowing  greatness  that  in  com- 
parison with  it  everjihing  else  falls  into  the 
background. 


A  masterly 
achieve- 
ment 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


201 


What,  in  its  fundamental  nspect,  is  the  Monroe       c"ap.  v. 
Doctrine  ?     Jefferson  saw  the  group  of  European   oid-world 
nations    engaged    in    almost    incessant    warfare   conditions 
with  one  another,  changing  boundaries  through 
conquest,  making  and  breaking  alliances,  strug- 
gling painfully  for  release  from  the  shackles  of 
mediaeval  systems,  in   response  to  new  ideas  of 
popular  progress;    and  through  it  all  he  foresaw 
with  wonderful  clearness  the  gradual  evolution 
of  a  better  order  of  things  and  the  ultimate  es- 
tablishment of   a  peaceable,  mo<lern    concert  of 
European  nations,  working  its  way  by  hard  ex- 
perience out  of  the  old  military  balance  of  power. 
He  anticipated  the  breaking  up  of  the  Turkish    What 
Empire  and  the  extension  of  the  European  svstem  J*fff^^<^^ 
across  ttie  Mediterranean  mto  Africa  and  beyond 
the  Bosphorus  and   the  Caucasus  into  Western 
Asia.     He  had   no  misgivings  at  all  about  the 
future  outworking  of  the  spirit  of  human  liberty 
and   of   democratic   and    industrial    progress    in 
those   bloo<l-staincd    regions  of   the    Old  World. 

But,  meanwhile,  he  conceived  of  a  new  Amer-    a 
ican  world  based  on   principles  of  equality  and   ^'»irican 
freedom,    and    beginning    its    {M)Iitical    career   at 
a  point  of  human  emancipation  which  it  might 
well  take  Europe  two  centuries  to  attain.     And 


'( 


ii  ii 


■rii 


1 1' 


i . 


t'  {■ 


[5. 


202 


CHAP.  V. 


A  states- 
man' s  con- 
ception 


Ultimate 
dominance 
of  the 
United 
States 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

he  believed  that  this  new  and  beneficent  system 
in  the  Western  Hemisphere  should  be  allowed 
to  work  out  its  destiny  without  alliances  or  en- 
tanglements with  the  European  nations,  both  for 
the  happiness  of  our  own  people  and  also  for  the 
subsequent  benefit  of  the  rest  of  mankind.     I  do 
not  say  that  Jefferson  was  alone  in  entertaining 
this  great  conception,  yet  I  have  not  the  slightest 
doubt  that  he  held  it,  in  all  its  wide  and  varied 
aspects,  with  far  more  clearness  of  vision  than 
any  other   man  —  just  as  I   know   that  he  ex- 
pressed it  better  than  anybody  else  either  before 
his  day  or  since,  down  to  our  own  time. 

While  we  were  still  bounded  by  the  Mississippi 
River  on  the  west,  and  inclosed  on  three  sides  by 
the  territorial  possessions  of  European  powers,— 
with  all  of  Central  and  South  America,  and  every 
dot  of  the  West  Indies  held  as  crown  colonies 
by  European   sovereigns,  —  Jefferson   saw  more 
vividly,  and  announced  with  more  boldness  and 
definiteness  than  any  public  man  at  Washington 
has  ventured  to  assert  down  to  our  own  day,  the 
necessary  ultimate  dominance  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  high   policy  that  must  be  followed   in 
pursuance  of  a  faith  in  our  manifest  destiny.     He 
believed  that  the  whole  Western  Hemisphere  must 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


203 


be  brought  out  from  under  European  control, 
and  that  the  American  Republic  must  assume 
the  leadership  in  the  development  of  democratic 
institutions  throughout  the  New  World. 

In  1805  he  declared:  "I  know  that  the  ac- 
quisition of  Louisiana  has  been  disapproved  by 
some,  from  a  candid  apprehension  that  the  en- 
largement of  our  territory  would  endanger  its 
Union.  But  who  can  limit  the  extent  to  which 
the  federative  principle  may  operate  effectively  ? 
The  larger  our  association,  the  less  will  it  be  shaken 
by  local  passions;  and,  in  any  view,  is  it  not  better 
that  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Mississippi  should 
be  settled  by  our  own  brethren  and  children  than 
by  strangers  of  another  family?  With  which 
shall  we  be  most  likely  to  live  in  harmony  and 
friendly  intercourse?" 

So  strongly  did  he  feel  the  necessity  of  a  period 
of  isolation  in  the  working  out  of  our  own  exjx^ri- 
ment,  that  he  went  so  far  at  times  as  to  say  frankly 
that  h'j  would  like  to  see  us  as  wholly  cut  off  from 
European  influence  as  China  itself  then  was. 
This,  of  course,  was  for  the  sake  of  that  distinc- 
tive growth  of  an  American  nationality,  and  an 
American  system,  for  which  he  beli  'ved  a  period 
of  seclusion  and  of  obscurity  might  l)e  valuable. 


CHAP.  V. 


The 

Loxdxiana 

Purchase 


"Settled 
by  our  otim 
brethren" 


Growth  of 
an  A  meri- 
can  nation- 
ality 


1* 


Kit 


T    . 


204 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


nental 
view 


CHAP.  V.  He  never,  of  course,  forgot  the  ultimate  reaction 
of  our  example  upon  the  character  of  the  European 
countries.  Thus,  a  little  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  he  wrote  to  an  American  statesman: 
Theconti-  "A  just  and  solid  republican  government  main- 
tained here  will  be  a  standing  monument  and  ex- 
ample for  the  aim  and  imitation  of  the  people  of 
other  countries."  In  another  letter,  fifteen  years 
earlier,  a  year  before  the  framing  of  the  Consti- 
tution, Mr.  Jefferson  had  shown  the  breadth  of 
his  view  by  writing:  "Our  confederacy  must  be 
viewed  as  the  nest  from  which  all  America,  North 
and  South,  is  to  Le  peopled." 

He  was  fearful  at  that  time  lest  the  Spaniards 
should  be  too  weak  to  hold  South  America.  His 
view  on  that  subject  is  too  interesting  to  be  al- 
lowed to  be  forgotten.  He  did  not  believe  that 
the  Spanish  colonies  were  capable  of  republican 
self-government,  and  he  thought  it  best  that  they 
should  remain  quietly  under  the  domination  of 
Spain  until  our  own  population  should  have  been 
sufficiently  advanced  to  gain  the  territory  from 
the  Spaniards  "  piece  by  piece,"  to  quote  his  own 
Expansion  phrase.  Thus,  even  as  early  as  1786,  Jefferson 
foresein  ^  resaw  the  inevitability  of  our  expansion,  until 
we    had    acquired    the    Floridas,    the    Louisiana 


As  to 

Spanish 

America 


y] 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


205 


CHAP.  V. 


country,  Texas,  and  the  great  Spanish  domain 
of  California  and  Northern  Mexico. 

With  some  prescience,  seemingly,  of  the  in-  The  ex- 
felicity  of  our  having  to  wrest  such  territory  away  ^'^  ^ 
from  a  Spanish-speaking  American  republic,  such 
as  Mexico  became,  he  had  hoped  that  Spain 
would  hold  on  until  we  could  emancipate  the 
territory  piece  by  piece  and  develop  it  into  happy, 
self-governing  states  in  our  own  confederation. 
In  these  days  of  the  railroad,  the  telegraph,  the 
fast  steamship,  and  the  daily  newspaper,  large  con- 
federacies seem  easily  enough  possible.  But  we 
must  not  underestimate  the  boldness  of  Thomas 
Jefferson  in  declaring,  a  hundred  and  twenty 
years  ago,  that  it  would  be  feasible  not  only  to 
bring  the  whole  of  North  America  under  our  one 
federal  government,  but  even  possible  to  bring 
in  South  America  also.  In  later  years,  when  jj^g  i^itg^ 
problems  of  practical  statesmanship,  rather  than  demands 
the  bold  survey  of  future  destiny  more  habitually 
occupied  his  mind,  he  contented  himself  with 
strong  declarations  in  favor  of  the  acquisition  of 
Cuba  by  the  United  States,  and  of  the  annexation 
of  Canada  at  the  first  convenient  opportunity. 

Undoubtedly  it  was  his  opinion  —  indeed,  he 
expressed   it   often   in   private  letters  —  that  the 


I 


206 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


K'l' 


f\  y 


I',     u 


CHAP.  V. 


Canada 


War  of  1812  would  result  in  our  taking  and  keep- 
Future  of  '"8  Canada  as  compensation  for  our  many  and 
substantial  grievances  against  England.  This 
was  not  due  to  any  unfriendliness  toward  Great 
Britain,  but  to  the  belief  that  it  would  make  for 
stable  equilibrium  all  around,  and  be  better  for 
everybody  concerned.  He  looked  forward  to  a 
confederated  North  America,  and  to  a  South 
America  at  least  wholly  in>.  ^pendent  of  Europe 
and  developing  under  our  friendly  auspices. 
He  wrote  to  Baron  von  Humboldt  in  1813  as 
follows :  — 

"The  European  nations  constitute  a  separate 
division  of  the  globe,  their  treaties  make  them 
part  of  a  distinct  system;  they  have  a  set  of  in- 
terests of  f'leir  own  in  which  it  is  our  business 
never  to  engage  ourselves.  America  has  a  hemi- 
sphere to  itself.  It  must  have  its  separate  system 
of  interests,  which  must  not  be  subordinated  to 
those  of  Europe.  The  insulated  state  in  which 
nature  has  placed  the  American  continent  should 
so  far  avail  it  that  no  spark  of  war  kindled  in  the 
other  quarters  of  the  globe  should  be  wafted  across 
the  wide  oceans  which  separate  us  from  them." 

To  another  foreign  correspondent  he  wrote 
several  years  later :  — 


A  merica 
for  peace, 
not  war 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


207 


"Nothing   is   so   important   as   that   America 

shall  separate  herself  from  the  systems  of  Europe  ^.  .. 

and    establish    one    of   her   own.     Our   circum-  from 

stances,  our  pursuits,  our  interests  are  distinct;  ^'"■"P^"" 

system 

the  principles  of  our  policy  should  be  so  also. 
All  entanglements  with  that  quarter  of  the  globe 
should  be  avoided  if  we  mean  that  peace  and 
justice  shall  be  the  polar  stars  of  American  so- 
cieties." 

Finally,  before  the  great  enunciation  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  in  1823,  President  Monroe 
wisely  consulted  the  venerable  statesman  then 
in  retirement  at  Monticello,  and  he  received  from 
Mr.  Jefferson  an  ever-memorable  letter,  from 
which  I  may  quote  the  following  sentences: — 

"Our  first  and  fundamental  maxim  should  be  Statement 
never  to  entangle  ourselves  in  the  broils  of  Europe.  "-^  /"''»''2/ 
Our  second,  never  to  suffer  Europe  to  intermeddle 
with  cis-Atlantic  affairs.  America,  North  and 
South,  has  a  set  of  interests  distinct  from  those 
of  Europe  and  peculiarly  her  own.  She  should, 
therefore,  have  a  system  of  her  own,  separate  and 
apart  from  that  of  Europe." 

This,  all  things  considered,  is  perhaps  the  best 
and  clearest  statement,  as  it  is  the  boldest,  that 
has  ever  been  made  of  the  doctrine  so  repeatedly 


in  1823 


i:      I 


=! 

208 

i\ 

CHAP.  V. 

iJ    '' 

An  earlier 

,     il 

utterance 

if 

1 

'Ml 

Cuba  and 

i/' 

Merico 

W'' 


w 


1.'..  Sew- 
ard's 
policy  in 
Mexico 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

set  forth  by  Jefferson,  though  nominally  attrib- 
uted, on  account  of  one  official  utterance,  to  one 
of  Jefferson's  most  steadfast  disciples.       Fifteen 
years  earlier  than   this,  in  writing  to   Governor 
Claiborne,    who     was     then     administering    the 
Louisiana  Territory  at  New  Orleans,  —  as  if  in 
prophetic  forecast  of  actual  applications  of  his 
principles   of    policy,  —  Jefferson    had    said,    re- 
specting Cuba  and  Mexico:    "We  consider  their 
interests  and  ours  as  the  same,  and  that  the  object 
of  both  must  be  to  exclude  all  European  influence 
from  this  hemisphere."     Nearly  sixty  years  later 
we  applied  this  specific  principle  to  the  case  of 
Mexico,    and   expelled   a   French   army   and   an 
Austrian  dynasty. 

Mr.  Seward,  one  of  the  greatest  successors  of 
Jefferson,  and  one  of  the  few  of  our  more  recent 
statesmen  who  have  seemed  to  comprehend  the 
principles  of  American  policy,  had  the  honor 
to  enforce  our  views  in  the  case  of  Mexico.  The 
reasons  would  have  seemed  ample,  a  very  few 
years  later,  either  before  or  after  the  Virginius 
incident,  for  the  enforcement  of  that  principle 
in  the  case  of  Cuba.  But  the  views  that  then 
prevailed  were  rather  those  of  legalists  and  diplo- 
matists than  those  of  masters  of  American  policy 


M 


I'ii, 


-J, 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


209 


the  large 


And 


CHAP.  V. 


it  remained  for  ou 

countr}',  in  a  better  period,  and  in  the  fullness  Cur  later 

of  time,  to  enforce  the  Jeffersonian  principles  of  policy  in 

policy  in  the  cai.e  of  an  island  concerning  which 

Jefferson    in    1823    had    written:     "I    candifUy 

confess  that  I  have  ever  looked  on  Cuba  as  the 

most   interesting  addition  which  could   ever  be 

made  to  our  system  of  states." 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  ^Ir.  Jefferson  Predictions 

was  always  consciously  working  out  a  permanent  "" '"  ^"^"^ 

"^  lation 

rather  than  a  temporary  line  of  policy,  and  that 

he  always  had  in  mind  the  rapid  extension  and 

great   growth   of  the   nation.     Thus,   writing  to 

Baron  von  Humboldt  not  long  after  the  census 

of  1810,  which  had  shown  our  population  to  be 

a  little  more  than  seven  millions,  he  declared :  — 

"In  fifty  years  more  the  United  States  alone   To  Ilum- 

will   contain    fifty    millions   of    inhabitants,    and  ''"'''' 

fifty  years  are   soon  gone  over.     The   peace   of 

1763  is  within  that  period.     I  was  then  twenty 

years  old,  and  of  course  remember  well    all   the 

transactions  of  the   war  preceding   it,    and  you 

will  live  to  see  the  period  equally  ahead  of  us; 

and  the  numbers  which  will  then  be  spread  over 

the    other    parts    of    the    American    hemisphere 

catching  long  before  that  the   principles  of  our 


Lit    ,' 


;^^:^! 

!  1 

^  -^ 

),  V 

):'  ;i 

i^'^-.  ^' 

'  '. 

^!i'i '-' 

Wmk  ,> 

liM 

>V: 

.1      ) 


(     11 


J 


210 


CHAP.  V. 


What 
h  umboldt 
lived  to  see 


To  Monroe 
on  Canada 


Rnrr  and 
Innguaqe 
in  America 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

portion  of  it,  and  concurring  with  us  in  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  same  system." 

Humboldt  actually  lived  to  se  tli<'  populatioi 
of  the  Unitetl  States  alone  m  v  tlian  thirty 
millions,  and  to  see  the  independent  r^outn 
American  states  living  under  constitutions  mtxl- 
eled  after  ours,  and  concurring  in  the  main  in 
our  views  of  a  distinctive  American  international 
policy. 

In  his  population  estimates,  Mr.  Jefferson  had 
probably  calculated  upon  our  union  with  Canada, 
which  would  have  resulted  in  tuJ  much  moit? 
rapid  development  of  that  region.  Writing  to 
James  Monroe,  in  1801,  he  declared:  — 

"Iljwever  our  present  interests  may  restrain 
us  within  our  own  limits,  it  is  impossible  not  to 
look  forward  to  distant  times  when  our  rapid 
multiplication  will  expand  itself  heyontl  those 
limits  and  cover  the  whole  northern,  if  not  the 
southern,  continent,  with  a  people  sptmking  the 
same  language,  governed  in  similar  forms,  and 
by  similar  laws." 

What  other  man,  in  1801,  foresaw  so  clearly 
the  great  growih  of  the  Knglish-six-aking  races 
and  the  widespread  establishtiient  of  their  .scK-ial 
and  political  institutions  ?    Writing  to  Mr.  Madi- 


.4!. 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


211 


son  on  the  Florida  question  in   1809,  Jeh  rson       chap.  v. 
declared :  — 

"We  should  then  have  only  to  include  the 
North  [meaning  Canada],  in  our  confederacy, 
and  we  should  have  such  an  empire  for  liberty 
as  she  has  never  surveyed  since  the  creation ;  and 
I  am  persuaded  no  constitution  was  ever  before 
so  well  calculated  as  ours  for  extensive  empire 
and  st»lf-ji;overnment." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  pause  to  inquire  how  far   Tlw  still 

Jefferson's  swcific  forecasts  have   been   verified  {"''''''' 

homon 

in  the  course  of  a  hundnnl  years;  but  it  is  to  be 
remarked  that  he  was  dealing  consci«)usly  with  a 
larger  future  than  a  single  centur}'.  In  short, 
the  statesmen  of  to-day,  for  large,  fresh,  and 
sweeping  views  towanl  the  still  future  horizon, 
should  look  through  the  lenses  proviiled  by 
Thomas  Jefferson.  It  remains  true,  as  he  p)inted 
out,  that  the  {Jolicy  oi"  EurofX"  is  ess(>ntially 
belligerent  and  aggressive,  while  the  policy  of 
America  is  essentially  pacific. 

It  remains  true,  monMuer,  that  it  nuist  be  a   The  larijrH 
principal  aim  of  our  |M)licy  to  promote  the  develop-   ^"""»''*''!/ 
ment  of  the  Canadian  half  of  North  America  in 
harmony  with  that  of  our  own  half,  with  a  view 
to  ultimate  voluntary  |)oliticaI  union.     If  Jefferscm 


*  . 


^1^ 

h 
.11 

1    i' 


'i     '1 


I! 


212 


CHAP.  V. 


The 

Isthmian 

canal 


The  Gulf 
iirid  the 
Carililtean 
Sta  are 
A  merican 


u 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THi  AVERAGE  MAN 

were  alive,  he  would  still  hold  this  to  be  the 
la.  ^est  unfulfilled  aspiration  to  be  noted  in  the 
items  of  a  future  public  policy. 

In  view  of  the  gi-eat  development  of  our  Pacific 
seaboard,  it  would  have  been  in  strict  keeping 
with  all  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  views  to  advocate  the 
territorial  acquisition  of  the  Isthmian  strip  that 
connects  North  and  South  America  with  a  view 
to  cutting  a  ship  canal  on  our  own  soil.  Although 
such  a  costly  project  was  by  no  means  ripe  for 
action  in  his  day,  Mr.  Jefferson  more  than  once 
expressed  lively  interest  in  the  possibility  of  an 
interoceanic  canal.  And  let  it  be  said  with  the 
utmost  emphasis,  nothing  would  have  been 
further  from  Mr.  Jefferson's  views  than  the 
placing  of  this  strictly  American  enterprise  under 
the  political  auspices  of  the  great  powers  of 
Europe,  although  such  a  plan  was  proposed  in 
the  Bulwer-C'laj-ton  treaty  by  an  American 
Secretary  of  State  in  1850,  and  again  proposed 
in  1900.  Fortunately,  the  preponderant  senti- 
ment of  the  country  was  aroused  to  a  perception 
of  the  vital  bearings  of  the  question;  and  we 
may  rest  assured  that  Americans  will  henceforth 
remember  Jefferson's  idea  that  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  the  Caribbean  Sea  are  essentially 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNPER  N  ,W  TESrS 


213 


American  waters,  and  that  an    \merican  inter-       chap.  v. 
oceanic  canal  must  come  under  the  full  control  of 
the  American  political  system. 

Jefferson  advocated  an  pie  coast  defenses,  and   Coast  de- 
a  navy  adequate  to  our  purposes  of  protection.  ■^''"*<'  ^^^ 
If  at  one  time  he  seemed  not  to  favor  an  ambitious       ^^ 
naval  policy,  it  was  for  immediate  reasons  which 
he  ably  explained.     The  naval  predominance  of 
England  was  so  great  that  we  could  not  then  hope 
to  rival  England  on  the  sea,  and  an  inferior  navy 
would  be  likely  to  be  sacrificed  in  a  British  war. 
John  Adams,  himself  the  staunch  advocate  of  a 
vigorous  naval  policy,  declared  in  his  old  age  that   Father 
he   had   always   regarded   Mr.   Jefferson   as  the  "^""^ 
Father  of  tl.,  American  Na\7.  ""'^ 

A  study  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  views,  with  reference 
to  their  a(  alication  to  our  existing   conditions, 
would  prouably  lead  to  .'le  conclusion  that  hi 
would  now  favor  the  steady  development  of  our  q^  ,^^ 
ncv  navy,  but  would  limit  the  standing  army  as  army 
closely  as  possible.     As  early  as  1799  he  wrote  to  5"«''"""» 
Elbridge  Gerry :  — 

"I  am  for  relying  for  internal  defense  on  our 
militia  solely,  till  actual  invasion." 

But  several  years  later,  in  correspondence  with 
some  one  else,  he  made  this  very  notable  utter- 


^■] 


M 


I  H 


1, 


21 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


;  '! 


CHAP.  V. 

Utiiirrsal 
militia 


Militnrji 
itiMrnrlion 
in  schools 


A  citizen 
soldiery 


ance :   "  None  but  an  armed  nation  can  dispense 

with  a  standing  army.     To  keep  ours  armed  and 

disciplined  is  therefore  at  all  times  important." 
And  ill  his  last  annual  message,  in  1808,  as  his 

second  Presidential  term  was  ending,  he  declared 

to  Congress :  — 

"  For  a  people  who  are  free,  and  who  mean  to 

remain  so,  a  well-organized  and  armed  militia 

is  their  best  security." 

You  will  remember  that  in  1813,  several  years 

after  his  retirement,  in  the  light  of  our  current 
experiences  in  the  pending  war  with  Great  Britain, 
he  wrote  to  James  Monroe  that  "  We  must  make 
military  instruction  a  regular  part  of  collegiate 
education;    we  can   never  be  safe  until  this  is 
done."     In  short,  Jefferson  believed  in  a  citizen 
soldiery,  to  be  composed,  if  necessary,  of  prac- 
tically all  the  young  men  in  the  country,  none  of 
whom  should  have  grown  up  without  becoming 
familiar  with  the  use  of  weapons  or  without  being 
sufficiently  drilled  and  trained  to  admit  of  ready 
organization.     For  the  supply  of  officers  he  would 
make   sure  that  young  men   in   academies  and 
collegiate  institutions  should  have  some  especial 
training  in  military  tactics  and  the  art  of  war. 
After  the  experience  of  a  hundred  years,  wc 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


215 


have  arrived  at  no  wiser  view  than  this.  While 
England  has  begun  to  talk  of  conscription  and 
great  standing  armies,  after  the  continental 
fashion,  it  behooves  us  to  see  clearly  our  own 
path  and  hold  fast  to  the  principle  that  ours  must 
be  an  armed  and  disciplined  nation,  which  foi 
that  very  reason  can  dispense  with  a  large  stand- 
ing army. 

The  question  must  naturally  arise,  what  rela- 
tion our  pf.aition  and  policy  in  the  Philippines 
bears  to  the  American  policy  of  isolation  as  set 
forth  by  Mr.  Jefferson.  I  shall  make  no  ingenious 
attempt  to  reconcile  one  thing  with  another.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  prize  consistency  above  all 
else.  But  in  this  particular  instance,  I  am  unable 
to  find  any  denial,  or  even  any  weakening,  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  principle.  Mr.  Jefferson  and 
his  colleagues  were  dealing  with  two  opposing 
systems,  one  the  European,  the  other  the  Ameri- 
can. These  systems  had  relation  to  such  parts  of 
the  world  as  were  at  that  time  within  the  sphere 
of  ordinary  commercial  intercourse,  or  were 
related  under  the  principles  of  international  law. 
recognizing  one  another  by  the  ex<'liange  of 
ambassadors  or  other  agents.  At  that  time  there 
was  little  trading  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  most 


CHAP.  v. 

A  disci- 
plined 
nation 


Our 

Philippine 

polioj 


The 

Pacific  in 
Jefferson's 
time 


216 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


Our  new 
interests 


European 

svstem 


American 
system 


Pacific 
system 


important  perhaps  being  the  regular  moving  of 
the  Spanish  galleons  from  Mexico  to  the  Philip- 
pines, and  vice  versa.  China  and  Japan,  Korea 
and  Siam,  had  no  connection  or  intercourse  with 
Europe  and  America.  Australia  had  not  been 
colonized. 

A  wholly  new  situation  has  arisen  since  then. 
A  new  commerce  has  come  into  existence,  and  the 
far  East  has  been  aroused  from  the  slumber  of 
centuries.  With  our  great  Pacific  seaboard,  we 
must  needs  be  vitally  interested  in  the  new  com- 
merce and  the  new  affairs  of  the  Pacific  Ocean 
and  its  bordering  countries.  The  European  sys- 
tem remains,  and  it  must  continue  to  dominate 
Europe,  Africa,  and  the  western  part  of  Asia. 
The  American  system  also  remains,  and  so  long 
as  we  are  true  to  the  policy  laid  down  by  our 
forefathers  it  will  contintie  to  dominate  the 
Western  Hemisphere  of  North  and  South  America. 
But  there  has  been  rapidly  evolving  a  third  sys- 
tem —  that  of  the  far  East,  or  the  Pacific  —  in 
which  China  and  Japan  have  a  great  part  to 
play,  and  in  which  we  also  have  interests,  as  have 
several  of  the  European  powers.  These  new 
interests  of  ours  had  become  important  before 
we  had  fairly  recognized  them.     A  war  in  asser- 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


217 


CHAP.  V. 


tion  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  brought  us  tempo- 
rarily to  Manila,  and  we  remained  at  Manila  for 
reasons  that  had  no  reference  at  all  to  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  but  rather  to  our  new  Pacific  interests 
and  responsibilities. 

I  have  no  reason  to  mention  this  topic  except  Our 

by  way  of  these  passing  suggestions.     The  Mon-  <"'""'^»'*<'^ 

.  policy 

roe  Doctrme  more  than  ever  is  the  great  cardinal 

principle  of  our  policy.  Our  chief  territorial 
expansion  is  to  be  in  our  own  hemisphere,  where 
conditions  favor  the  settlement  of  English-speak- 
ing men.  Our  position  in  the  Philippines  is 
exceptional,  and  is  perhaps  to  be  modified  in 
due  time  to  the  form  of  a  mere  friendly  protec- 
torate.    Of  one  thing  we  may  be  assured,  and  Our 

that  is  that  our  mission  there  is  destined  to  be  '"^■'*<'" 

in  the 
one  of  beneficence  to  the  inhabitants  themselves.   Philip- 

I  must  confess  myself  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  P*"** 
logic  of  those  who  would  quote  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  as  showing  conclusively  that 
our  presence  in  the  Philippines  is  contrary  to 
Jefferson's  principles  of  democracy  and  self- 
government. 

Mr.  Jefferson  had  some  sense  of  historical  Theele- 
processes,  and  also  some  <lear  recognition  of  the  '"*''•' "/ 
need   of  considering  the   element   of  time.     He 


4 


:  ';< 


.|M 


218 


CHAP.  V. 


Evolution 
of  our 
republic 


Rights  of 
communi- 
ties 


Practical 
causes  of 
American 
revolution 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

pointed   •  at   with  fi-equency  that   circumstances 
had   brought  our  people   in  the    American    col- 
onies   to    a    position  where,   beyond    any  other 
people    of    any  period,  we  were    fitted   to   enter 
upon  the  experiment  of  a  democratic  republican 
state.     Our  colonies  had  been  growing  for  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half,  and  had  been  evolving 
the    American    citizen    and    the    American    self- 
governing  community.     Until  these  two  develop- 
ments had  taken  place  there  could  have  been  no 
successful  American  republic.     Even  in  1774  and 
1775  Jefferson's  views  of  the  inherent  rights  of 
men,  as  respects  self-government,  had  to  do  not 
with  the  higher  attributes  of  national  or  imperial 
sovereignty,    but    with    the    practical,    ever}'-day 
rights  of  communities  to  order  their  own  local 
affairs  and  to  take  part  in  imposing  the  taxes  that 
they  were  themselves  to  pay.     It  was  the  denial 
of  these  ordinary  rights  of  local,   concrete  self- 
government   to  the   American   colonies  that  led 
them  to  the  verge  of  a  revolution  that  otherwise 
would  not  have  been  defensible.     In  other  words, 
the  American  revolution  was  not,  either  in  Jeffer- 
son's mind,  or  in  that  of  any  other  leader,  founded 
upon  abstract  conceptions  of  the  rights  of  indi- 
vidual men,  but  rather  upon  practical  grievances. 


I;    i 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


219 


The  established  order  of  the  world  required       chap.  v. 
the  e::ercise  by  some  accountable  government  of  poUUcal 

the  responsibilities  of  sovereignty  at  Manila.     In  evolution  at 

Manila 
that  exercise  the  United  States  became  the  legal 

successor  of  Spain.  It  became  incumbent  upon 
us,  however,  in  regard  to  the  people  themselves, 
to  assert  as  rapidly  as  possible  our  own  views  of 
the  value  of  individual  citizenship  and  of  self- 
government  in  communities,  as  a  foundation  for 
the  larger  institutions  of  the  province,  the  state, 
or  the  nation. 

Mr.    JeflFerson's    letters    to    James    Madison,   Early 

Thomas  McKeen,  Governor  Claiborne,  and  vari-  f^P^'"»'^"<;« 

m  Louisv- 

ous  others,  about  a  hundred  years  ago,  relating  to  ana 
the  gradual  evolution  of  government  in  the  pur- 
chased Louisiana  Territory,  disclose  a  practical 
statesmanship  that  makes  it  clear,  even  down  to 
the  minute  details,  how  Jefferson  would  have 
approached  the  task  of  initiating  and  developing 
a  government  for  the  Philippine  Archipelago. 
And  I  may  add  that  I  do  not  see  any  appreciable 
difference  of  philosophy  or  principle  between  the 
Jeffersonian  views  and  those  which  Governors  Taft 
and  Wright  clearly  expressed,  and  which  were  sup- 
ported at  Washington  by  Presidents  McKinley  and 
Roosevelt,  and  by  Mr.  Root  as  Secretary  of  War. 


■ 


220 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


k 

.-I . 

IT''  * 

lii  ; 

iff    J 

m 

M 

|i   I 

I, 


I  • 


CHAP.  V. 


We  do  not  show  our  belief  in  democracy  at 
Rational  home  by  forcing  the  ballot  into  the  hands  of  school 
democraof  children,  but  rather  by  our  definite  purpose  so 
to  train  the  school  children  that  in  due  time  they 
may  come  into  a  valuabi  heritage  of  citizenship. 
In  like  manner  we  shall  fulfill  every  duty  and 
observe  every  principle  of  democracy  in  the 
Philippines  if  we  introduce  popular  and  repre- 
sentative institutions  just  as  rapidly  as  mny  be 
consistent  with  the  maintenance  of  order  and  the 
enforcement  of  justice  between  man  and  man. 

It  is  not  impossible,  furthermore,  that  our 
experience  in  the  Philippines  and  elsewhere  may 
help  us  to  understand  better  the  evolutionary 
character  of  some  of  our  problems  nearer  home. 
We  have  at  times  found  the  difficulties  confront- 
ing our  democratic  institutions  to  be  so  dishearten- 
ing that  we  have  allowed  the  pessimists  to  raise 
their  insidious  doubts  as  to  the  fundamental 
value  of  democracy  and  as  to  the  future  of  our 
system.  Here,  again,  I  do  not  know  any  wiser 
teacher  to  follow  than  Mr.  Jefferson,  nor  any 
better  dictum  than  that  the  ultimate  cure  for  the 
ills  of  democracy  is  to  be  found  in  democracy 
itself. 

In  Jefferson's  time  it  required  great  faith  and 


Light  on 
our  nearer 
problems 


Ir 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


221 


clear  insight  to  hold  in  an  unqualified  manner 
to  the  novel  doctrine  of  the  right-mindedness, 
capacity,  and  wisdom  of  the  plain  people,  and  to 
the  view  that  government  should  rtjt  on  the 
broadest  possible  basis.  Rousseau  and  other 
French  writers,  it  is  true,  had  promulgated  such 
ideas.  But  they  argued  in  the  sphere  of  abstract 
discussion,  and  not  at  all  in  that  of  practical 
politics.  Such  views  in  England  were  of  slow 
and  cautious  growth,  and  even  to  our  own  day 
it  is  the  taxpayer  —  rather  than  the  man  —  who 
casts  a  British  ballot,  while  a  single  proprietor 
may  vote  in  as  many  different  places  as  he  owns 
property.  The  practical  doctrine  of  democracy, 
that  is  to  say,  of  the  plain  people,  as  the  depository 
of  political  power,  the  doctrine  .so  firmly  held  in 
a  later  period  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  was,  above 
all,  the  Jcffersonian  doctrine.  Of  all  the  men 
who  had  lived  in  the  world  up  to  his  time,  he 
expounded  that  idea  most  influentially.  It  was. 
his  leadership  of  a  school  of  American  politics 
and  statecraft,  more  than  anything  else,  that  gave 
firm  establishment  to  the  broad  democratic  ex- 
periment in  this  country.  "The  only  orthodox 
object,"  he  declared,  "of  the  institution  of  gov- 
ernment,   is   to    secure    the    greatest    degree    of 


CHAP.  v. 

The  doc- 
trine that 
the  people 
are  capable 


Jefferson 
if.t  chief 
expounder 


"Happi- 
ness to  the 
general 


\ 


\\ 


/.■'  I 


.  i 


♦»  . 


222  THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

CHAP.  V.       happiness  possible  to  the  general  mass  of  those 
associated  under  it." 

In  his  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  written  in  1782,  his 
observations  on  government  were  in  a  vein  well 
indicated  by  the  following  quotations :  — 
Argument         "Every  government  degenerates  when  trusted 
for  popular  ^^  ^^^  ^^^^^^  ^f  j^e  people  alone.     The  people 
govern-  »       •  • 

ment  themselves,   therefore,   are   its  only  safe  deposi- 

tories. To  render  even  them  safe,  their  minds 
must  be  improved  to  a  certain  degree."  On  the 
same  page  he  declared:  — 

"  The  influence  over  government  must  be  shared 
among  all  the  {vople.  If  every  individual  which 
composes  their  mass  par  icipates  in  the  ultimate 
authority,  the  government  will  be  safe:  because 
the  corrupting  the  whole  mass  will  exceed  any 
private  resources  of  wealth;  and  public  ones 
cannot  be  provided  but  by  levies  on  the  people. 
In  this  case  every  man  would  have  to  pay  his  own 
price  The  goverrmeHr  of  Great  Britain  has 
been  corrupted  becatw*  bm  oi*-  nian  in  ten  has 
a  right  to  vote  for  -msasm^  of  Parliament.  The 
sellers  of  the  tw»w«mai«B,.  iierefore.  get  nine 
tenth>    li  tiseiT  arwt-  cleat 

For       pefWfi  >»)   3j«»t»    3;^  lifty  years,  seem- 
ingly v-'thc^    .;    aomes:  -    misgiving,   Jeiferson 


h'" 


l-!  ']ZT5kSi''' 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


223 


ivarertng 
apostle 


proclaimed  this  political  gospel  of  popular  self-       chap.  v. 
government.     Many  of    the    half-hearted   repub-  ^„„„. 
licans  of  his  time  favored  some  vestiges  of  hered- 
itary   or    aristocratic    or    exclusive    institutions. 
Jefferson  never  compromised  with  any  of  these 
opinions.     Early  in  his  career  he  wrote  to  General 
Washington,    "Experience    has    shown    that    the 
hereditary  branches  of  modern  government  are 
the  patrons  of  privilege  and  prerogative."     Since 
he  wrote  those  words,  the  world  has  had  a  further  Hereditary 
experience  of  such  an  hereditary  institution  as  the  Z'""'^'" 
British  House  of  Lords,  through  an  added  cen- 
tury and  a  quarter;    and  Mr.  Jefferson's  views 
remain  so  sound  and  judicious  that  they  might 
have  been  written  yesterday.     "The  tnie  founda- 
tion of  republican  government,"  he  wrote  at  a 
later  period,  "  is  the  equal  right  of  every  citizen 
in  his  person  and  property,  and  in  their  manage- 
ment." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the   idea  of  an   The  idea 
unrestricted  suffrage  was  a  very  novel  one  at  the      . 
beginning  of  the  nmeteenth  centurj'.     What  Mr.   suffrage 
Jefferson's  views  had  always  been  he  made  clear 
in  a  letter  to  a  citizen  of  Virginia  which  he  wrote 
in  1800.     He  explained  that  the  new  constitution 
of  Virginia  had  been  formed  when  he  was  absent 


224 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


For  the 

large 

electorate 


He  recog- 
nized fartfi 


attending  a  session  of  Congress;  and  then  he 
added,  "Had  I  been  here  (in  Virginia),  I  should 
probably  have  proposed  a  general  suffrage  because 
my  opinion  has  always  been  in  favor  of  it."  In 
notes  and  proposals  for  Virginia  constitutions  at 
several  earlier  periods,  Mr.  Jefferson  had  not 
wholly  ignored  the  prevailing  sentiment  in  favor 
of  a  property  qualification.  But  he  had  practically 
nullified  such  a  limitation  by  admitting  any  man 
who  was  liable  to  militia  duty.  I  must  not  dwell 
tediously  upon  this  point,  although  to  my  mind  it 
has  a  significance  not  merely  historical  or  aca- 
demic, but  practical  in  a  concrete  and  immedi- 
ate sense.  Mr.  Jefferson's  arguments  for  a  large 
electorate  were  many-sided,  and  they  were  to  my 
mind  as  a  whole  unanswerable.  But  it  would  be 
highly  unjust  to  his  doctrine  of  the  suffrage  to 
say  that  he  proclaimed  the  efficacy  of  universal 
suffrage,  at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstances, 
as  sure  to  work  out  good  results. 

As  a  general  maxim  he  was  ever  proclaiming 
the  inherent  right,  and  also  the  atlvantage,  of  self- 
government.  But  he  was  a  statesman,  and  he 
recognized  facts  in  any  given  situation.  And  so 
his  maxims  about  self-government  presupposed  a 
ct'rtain  degree  of  preparation  and  fitness.     Thus, 


l«f'.« 


mMii 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


225 


after  he  had  purchased  Louisiana  from  France,       chap.  v. 
he  did  not  for  a  moment  allow  his  well-known  ^,  j„ 
philosophy   of   the    right    of   self-government    to  Louisiana 
obscure  his  practical  judgment  as  to  the  immedi- 
ate work  in  hand.     In  December,  ISO.'J,  he  wrote 
to  DeWitt  Clinton  as  follows:    "Although  it  is 
acknowledged    that    our    new    fellow-citizens    in 
Louisiana  are  as  yet  as  incapable  of  self-govern- 
ment as  children,  yet  some  in  C^ongress  cannot 
bring  themselves  to  suspend  its  principles  for  a 
single    moment.     The    "^'•mporary    or    territorial 
government  of  that  country,  therefore,  will  en- 
counter great  difficulty." 

Two  or  three  years  before  that,  in  a  letter  The  rule  of 
to  John  Breckinridge,  he  pointed  out  a  radical  ""^'""^<"'- 
difference  between  our  American  people  and  the 
people  of  France,  in  that,  while  our  countrymen 
are  impressed  from  their  cradle  with  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  law  of  majority  rule,  the  people  of 
France,  on  the  other  hand,  to  quote  his  exact 
words,  "have  never  been  in  the  habit  of  self- 
government,  and  are  not  yet  in  the  habit  of 
acknowledging  that  fundamental  law  of  nature 
by  which  aione  self-government  can  be  exercised 
by  a  society  —  I  mean  the  Irr  major  in  ,>  ,'/,»." 
Mr.  Jefferson,  of  course,  had  no  doubt  whatever 

4 


4' 


14 


% 


226 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

Need  of 
prelimir 
nary  pro- 
cesses 


The  test  of 
intelli- 
gence 


An  inren- 
tire  to 
diligence 


as  to  the  applicability  in  due  time  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  self-government  in  Louisiana  on  the  one 
hand  and  in  France  on  the  other.  He  did  not 
waive  his  ideal,  but  merely  recognized  the  neces- 
sity of  preliminary  processes. 

In  his  later  years  he  came  more  and  more  to 
point  out  the  need  of  character  and  intelligence 
in  the  individual  citizen.     Thus,  in  commenting  in 
a  letter  to  a  foreign  correspondent  in  1814,  on  a 
new  constitution  that  had  been  drawn  up  for  Spain, 
he  wrote:  "There  is  one  provision  which  will  im- 
mortalize its  inventors.     It  is  that  which  after  a 
certain  epoch  disfranchises  every  citizen  who  can- 
not read  and  write.     This  is  new,  and  is  the  fniit- 
ful  germ  of  the  improvement  of  everything  good, 
and  the  correction  of  everything  imperfect  in  the 
present  constitution.     This  will  give  you  an  en- 
lightened people  and  an  energetic  public  opinion." 
And  I  might  make  other  citations,  showing  an 
acceptance  by  Mr.  Jefferson  of  the  plan  of  an 
educational  restriction.     In  this  there  was  noth- 
ing inconsistent  with  his  previous  arguments  in 
favor  of  a  wide  extension  of  the  franchise.     The 
.system  against  which  he  had  l)een  fighting  was 
one  which  tended    towanl    the    perpetuation   of 
privileged  classes  in  the  coinniunity.     The  educa- 


if.* 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS  227 

tional  qualification,  as  he  favored  it,  had  no  such  chap.  v. 
tendency.  Its  object  was  not  to  make  permanent 
exclusion  of  the  masses  from  an  equal  part  in  the 
work  and  privilege  of  government,  but  rather  to 
provide  an  added  incentive  to  diligence  and  effort 
on  the  part  of  every  young  man  to  fit  himself  to 
meet  the  tests. 

There  has  been  a  period  in  our  recent  history   Making 
during  which  more  honor  has  been  paid  to  Jef-   ^ 
ferson's   general    maxims   than   to   his    practical 
statesmanship.     It  was  precisely  because  he  be- 
lieved so  deeply  in  the  people  and  in  their  essential 
equality  of  rights   and   of  legal  status,   that   he 
attached  so  much  importance  to  the  work  of  mak- 
ing them  fit  to  be  intrusted  with  the  exercise  of 
their  natural  rights  as  members  of  the  political 
community.     Thus  Jefferson  would  have  said  — 
if  I  have  any  understanaing  of  the  principles  of 
his  statesmanship  —  that  it  was  the  great  business  At  {stakes 
of  the  people  of  America,  in  the  critical  period  after  "•' 
the  year  1865,  not  to  confer  the  franchise  indis- 
criminately upon  all  comers,  but  rather  to  seek 
by  every  means  and  by  every  sacrifice  to  qualify 
all  comers  —  and  especially  their  children  —  for 
the  future  exercise  of  the  franchise  in  an  intelligent 
and  responsible  manner. 


' 


m 


228 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


it  ) 


P',  i 


*»•' 


> 


11,^1 


CHAP.  V. 

Too  easy 
naturaliza- 
tion 


Would 
Jefferson 
have  re- 
stricted 
immigra- 
tion f 


I  do  not  think,  then,  that  we  have  paid  the  high- 
est honor  to  Jefferson  ian  principles  in  the  North 
by  admitting  to  the  franchise  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, if  not  millions,  of  foreigners  unable  to  speak 
the   English   language,   densely   ignorant  of  our 
forms  of  government,  and  to  a  large  extent  unable 
to  read  even  the  Latinic  dialects  or  the  Slavonic 
jargons  of  the  regions  from  which  they  have  come. 
It  is  not  strange,  under  oUch  circumstances,  that 
the  government  of  our  great  cities  has  been  cor- 
rupt and  inefficient.     The  conditions  of  immigra- 
tion in  Jefferson's  time  were  so  different  that, 
while  he  made  many  observations  on  the  subject 
that  still  possess  value,  there  is  not  much  in  his 
writings  of  direct  application  to  our  recent  and 
present  experiences  on  that   score.     It   may  be 
clearly    inferred,    however,    that    Mr.    Jefferson 
would  have  favored  some  measure  to  restrict  the 
coming  of  undesirable   immigrants  in  excessive 
numbers ;  and  it  is  even  more  fairly  to  be  inferred 
that  he  would  have  extended  the  franchise  to  such 
immigrants  only  upon  evidence  in  each  individual 
case  of  the  possession  of  proper  knowledge  and 
capacity  to  take  part  in  the  government  of  Ameri- 
can communities. 

With  respect  to  pending  franchise  questions  in 


■h' 


•iHi   ? 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


229 


the  Southern  states,  I  have  no  word  of  a  con- 
troversial nature  to  utter.  An  electorate  once 
broadened  to  the  utmost  possible  limits  is  a 
difficult  thing  to  contract.  The  ultimate  aim  of 
statesmanship,  doubtless,  should  be  the  broaden- 
ing of  the  base  of  popular  government.  But  I  do 
not  think  there  is  any  gain  in  a  hastening  of  the 
process. 

After  all,  Mr.  JeflFerson's  greatest  contribution 
to  the  system  of  democracy  as  applied  in  practice 
was  his  doctrine  of  the  relation  of  the  government 
to  education.  He  believed  that  the  community 
as  a  whole  should  confer  upon  every  child  the 
opportunity  to  acquire  a  common  education,  and 
such  practical  knowledge  as  would  best  fit  it  for 
its  place  in  the  industrial  and  political  com- 
munity. To  his  mind  this  was  the  best  way  to 
meet  the  inequalities  of  wealth  and  condition 
that  otherwi.se  would  disturb  the  equilibrium  of  a 
democratic  state.  If  he  had  lived  to  our  day.  and 
had  found  large  elements  of  population  unquali- 
fied to  exercise  the  electoral  franchise,  he  would 
doubtless  have  advised  such  groups  or  factors  that 
their  true  interests  lay  in  other  directions  than 
politics  and  government.  But  with  etjual  em- 
phasis he  would  have  urged  upon  the  community 


CHAP.  V. 

The 

Southern 
franchise 
problems 


Education 
and  states- 
manship 


To  elevate 
the  citizen- 
ship 


■  f| 


230 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


U.  I 


i]:^ 


CHAP.  V.       at  large  the  still  more  important  fact  that  there 
must  be  extraordinary  effort  used  to  elevate  every 
part  of  the  citizenship  of  the  country. 
Every  eh-        AH  classes,  races,  and  nationalities  must  in- 
mentmust    gvitably  suflFer  some  harm  and  loss  through  the 
Xrt^^         degradation  of  any  single  element  or  factor  of  the 
population;  and  on  the  other  hand,  each  element 
of  the  community  must  experience  some  distinct 
gain  as  a  result  of  every  effort  made  to  improve 
the  intelligence  and  general  condition  of  any  other 
element  or  factor.    Happily,  there  are  not  want- 
ing the  signs  that  the  country  is  coming  to  an 
understanding  of  this  fact.      The  most  eager  pu- 
pils of  our  public  schools  in  New  York,  Chicago, 
and  many  other  Northern  cities  are  the  hundreds 
of   thousands   of   children   from   the   homes   of 
parents  who  do  not  speak  the  English  language. 
The  schools  The  lives  of  American  statesmen  and  the  prin- 
and  the        (.\p\es  of  American  government  form  the  themes 
fmmr"^    and  topics  that  more  than  all  others  attract  and 
ff^<"»**  inspire  those  sons  of  Italian,  Russian-Polish,  and 

Hungarian  parents  in  the  tenement  quarters  of 
New  York  and  Chicago,  as  they  throng  the  free 
circulating  libraries  for  books,  and  as  they  meet 
in  their  boys'  clubs  and  debating  societies.  I 
have  no  doubt  whatever  as  to  the  useful  future  of 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


231 


these  boys  as  American  voters,  although  I  have       chap.  v. 
had  many  misgivings  as  to  the  propriety  of  en- 
franchising their  fathers. 

There  was  danger,  a  few  years  ago,  lest  these   Character 
schools  might  give  to  the  children  of  hard-working  f^^^^^^ 
though  ignorant  immigrants  just  enough  smatter-  themselves 
ing  of  book  knowledge,  and  just  enough  contact 
with  people  of  better  economic  and  social  condi- 
tion than    their  parents,  to  spoil    them  for  the 
places  they  ought  to  fill.     Careful  investigation 
twelve  or  fifteen  years  ago  convinced   me  that 
along  with  the   immeasurable   good   our  public 
schools  were  accomplishing,  they  were  also  doing 
some  serious,  though  incidental  harm.     They  were 
detaching  the  sons  of  immigrants  from  manual 
pursuits,    while   not   helping   them   to   anything 

better.     But  the  schools  are  now  adapting  them-   Meeting 

the 
selves  to  the  new  conditions  they  have  to  meet,   ^^  ,^^     . 

and  they  are  everywhere  giving  emphasis  to  the  conditions 
idea  of  the  great  dignity  and  value  of  labor,  while 
more  and  more  they  are  combining  manual  train- 
ing and  the  teaching  of  practical  arts  with  mental 
and  moral  discipline,  and  with  instruction  in 
language,  numbers,  and  geography,  in  drawing, 
and  in  the  elements  of  science.  Mr.  Jetferson's 
broad  schemes  of  education  were  scientific  enough 


(  ! 


232 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


I 


CHAP.  V. 

The  right 
kind  of 
instruction 


Educa- 
tional 
systems 


Jefferson's 
lifelong 
work  for 
education 


and  flexible  enough  to  admit  all  such  later  dif- 
ferentiations as  the  kindergarten  and  the  practical 
trade  school,  as  well  as  the  older  grammar  school 
and  the  university.  To  Mr.  Cabell  in  1820  he 
wrote,  "Promote  in  every  order  of  men  the 
degree  of  instruction  proportioned  to  their  con- 
dition and  to  their  views  in  life." 

Upon  nothing  was  his  heart  more  set  than  upon 
the  systematic  ordering  of  education,  so  that  its 
benefits  might  be  thoroughly  distributed.  Cir- 
cumstances have  made  it  possible  to  carry  out  his 
views  of  a  state  system  more  perfectly  perhaps  in 
such  northwestern  commonwealths  as  Michigan 
and  Wisconsin  than  anyA\'here  else  in  this  country. 
And  where  such  systems  exist  at  their  best,  it  is 
wonderful  to  note  their  potency  in  the  assimi- 
lation of  the  new  and  seemingly  unpromising 
relays  of  immigrants  that  have  come  in  recent 
years  from  Eastern  and  Southern  Europe. 

The  South  has  responded  splendidly  of  late,  at 
great  sacrifice,  to  the  demand  for  schools;  and  I 
am  confident  that  there  will  be  no  relaxation  of 
effort.  Nevertheless  there  cannot  be  too  frequent 
a  re-reading  of  the  views  of  Mr.  Jefferson  upon  the 
importance  of  education,  and  upon  its  funda- 
mental place  in  a  democracy. 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


233 


His  views  of  the  relation  of  education  to  the       chap.  v. 

state  were  adopted  early  in  his  career,  and  were 

propounded  with  his  very  latest  breath.     I  deem 

it  remarkable  that  he  should  have  declared  in  a 

letter  to  Madison  as  early  as  1787  that  the  task 

and  function  of  giving  "  information  to  the  people 

is  the  most  certain,  and  the  most  legitimate  engine 

of  the  government."     Even  in  our  own  day  it   The  first 

seems  a  bold  and  advanced  idea  to  declare,  with-  •' """^  *""  "-^ 

govern- 
out  any  reserve  or  qualification,  that  education  is  ment 

the  first  duty  and  chief  function  of  government. 
The  whole  civilized  world  is  only  now  beginning 
cautiously  to  recast  itself  upon  a  glimmering  con- 
ception of  the  truth  of  that  idea.  Mr.  Jefferson 
stated  it  again  in  his  first  inaugural  message. 
In  1810  he  wrote  to  John  Tyler :  — 

"I  have  two  great  measures  at  heart,  without  Jefferson's 

which  no  republic  can  maintain  itself  in  strength.  •'"'^ 

•^  °         expres- 

1.  That  of  general  education,  to  enable  every  sions 
man  to  judge  for  himself  what  will  secure  or  en- 
danger his  freedom.  2.  To  divide  every  county 
into  hundreds,  of  such  size  that  all  the  children  of 
each  will  be  within  reach  of  a  central  school  in  it." 
In  later  writings  he  advocated  a  special  tax  for 
the  creation  and  maintenance  of  his  system  of 
schools  graded  from  the  primary  classes  to  the 


t 


! 


^:'' 


234 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 


The  train 
ing  of  the 
people 


university.  His  vindication  of  the  duty  of  the 
community  to  draw  by  taxation  upon  the  resources 
of  the  rich  to  pay  for  the  schooHng  of  the  poor  was 
so  complete  that  nobody  has  ever  been  able  to 
improve  upon  it. 

And  this  doctrine  of  his,  in  its  various  implica- 
tions, goes  to  the  heart  of  the  new  social  and  indus- 
trial conditions  we  see  about  us  in  this  twentieth 
century.     The  Jeffersonian  principle  is  that  the 
supreme  and  imperative  duty  of  the  state  is  the 
training  of  the  people  to  be  good  citizens  and 
useful  and  capable  members  of  society ;  and  again 
and  again  is  it  set  forth  in  the  utterances  of  Mr. 
Jefferson  that  the  safety  and  well-being  of  the 
state  lie  along  this  path  of  its  duty  and  its  burden. 
We  have  emerged   with   startling  suddenness 
upon  a  period  of  undreamt-of  industrial  combina- 
tions and  prodigious  aggregations  of  productive 
capital.     There  are  moments  when  it  seems  as 
if  the  concentrated  power  of  the  new  industrial 
society  is  becoming  so  great  that  it  must  sub- 
ordinate to  its  purposes  the  organs  and  agencies 
of  the  political  society.     In  many  particular  in- 
In  relation  stances,  temporarily  at  least,  such  subordination 
has  been  too  visible  to  be  denied.     The  only 
remedy  lies  in  the  training  of  the  individual  citi- 


Our  indus 

trial 

society 


to  govern 
ment 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


235 


zen.     Industrial  combinations  will  work  evil,  or       chap.  v. 
they   will  work  good,  according  as  the  commu- 
nity itself    is   prepared    to    shape   them   to   the 
common  advantage. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  man  is  diminishing  in  Value  of 
importance  as  compared  with  the  dollar.  For-  *  "*'*" 
tunately,  just  the  opposite  is  demonstrably  the 
case.  The  new  industrial  combinations  rest  even 
more  necessarily  upon  the  cooperation  of  talent 
and  skill  than  upon  the  dead  weight  of  united 
capital  alone.  There  never  was  a  time  when  it 
so  much  behooved  the  young  man  to  invest  in 
himself,  and  when  the  relative  value  of  personal 
training  and  acquired  aptitude  was  so  great  in 
comparison  with  that  of  accumulated  capital. 

The  ultimate  goal  in  a  democracy  is  not  strife    Unified 
and  discord,  but  political  harmony  and  concord ;  ^^"^ 
and  it  is  similarly  true  that  in  the  economic  life  of  forth 
the  community  the  better  hopes  reach  far  beyond 
the  wastefulness  and  strife  of  the  old  competitive 
system,   and  demand  the  substitution  for  it  of 
cooperative  methods  and  scientific  organization. 
We    are    certainly   entering    upon    a    period    of 
unified    effort,    from    which    there    can    be    no 
return  to  the  competitive  system  as  it  has  existed 
heretofore. 


t 


236 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


CHAP.  V. 

Methods 
of  control 


Jefferson 
on  limit- 
ing for- 
tunes 


And  respecting  this  new  and  close  organization 
of  industry,  several  methods  of  future  control  are 
readily  conceivable.     One  method  is  that  of  con- 
trol by  individuals,  or  by  syndicates  composed  of 
comparatively  few  men  whose  fortunes  c^n  be  told 
in  hundreds  or  thousands  of  millions.     A  second 
method  is  that  of  the  radical  enlargement  of  the 
functions  of  the  political  community,  so  that  the 
people  themselves,  organized  as  the  state,  may 
assume  control,  one  after  another,  of  the  great 
businesses  and  industries  of  the  country.     A  third 
method  is  that  of  the  gradual  distribution  of  the 
shares  of  stock  of  industrial  corporations  among 
the  workers  themselves  and  the  people  at  large, 
until  in  one  industry-  after  another  there  shall 
have  come  into  being  something  like  a  true  coop- 
erative system  managed  on  public  representative 
principles  quite  analogous  to  the  carrying  on  of 
our  political  institutions.     Mr.  Jeflferson  declared 
himself  clearly  and  strongly  against  any  arbitrary 
limitation  of  individual  wealth.     He  was  willing 
to  have  governmental  experiments  tried,  and  was 
not,  as  many  people  suppose,  the  apostle  of  the 
unqualified  doctrine  that  government  is  a  neces- 
sary evil,  that  the  best  government  is  the  one  that 
governs  least,  and  in  any  case  the  functions  of 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


237 


^vemment  should  be  negative  rather  than  posi- 
tive. The  tendency  of  his  teaching  was,  indeed, 
toward  as  little  interference  in  industrial  affairs 
on  the  part  of  government  as  circumstances  woidd 
permit.  liis,  however,  was  always  subject  in 
his  teaching  to  the  broad  principle  that  the  object 
of  government  is  to  promote  the  well-being  and 
happiness  of  the  greater  number,  and  that  its 
practical  functions  may  therefore  be  varied  from 
time  to  time  to  meet  new  conditions. 

Thus  all  the  new  functions  of  municipal  gov- 
ernment, in  a  period  when  the  majority  are  com- 
ing to  live  under  urban  conditions,  are  strictly  in 
harmony  with  the  JefFersonian  teaching.  If  the 
common  welfare  should  some  time  in  the  future 
demand  the  municipal  operation  of  street  rail- 
ways, or  even  the  national  ownership  and  opera- 
tion of  the  general  railroad  system,  surely  the 
shade  of  Mr.  Jefferson  would  not  arise  to  utter 
any  warning  whatever. 

In  his  own  day  he  observed  that  strong  men  as 
a  rule  make  their  own  fortunes,  and  that  under 
our  laws  of  inheritance  wealth  tends  in  tlje  third 
or  fourth  generation  toward  a  distribution  that 
robs  it  of  a.'iy  particular  danger  to  the  less  fortu- 
nate members  of  the  community.     There  is  no 


CHAP.  V. 

Govern- 
mint  and 
industry 


Cities  and 
the  Jejfer- 
sonian 
views 


Fortunes 
and  their 
distribu- 
tion 


238 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 


11 


:  (  « 

h 


V' 


CHAP.  V. 


Safety  in 
numbers 


Tkefuture 
belongs  to 
the  workers 


reason  at  this  moment  to  regard  Mr.  Jefferson's 
opinion  on  that  subject  as  out  of  date. 

In  other  words,  Jefferson's  dictum  holds  per- 
fectly good  to-day  that  our  governmental  safety 
lies  in  numbers;  and  that  concentrated  wealth, 
whether  in  individual  or  corporate  hands,  cannot 
possibly  in  the  long  run  take  away  any  of  the 
liberties  or  rights  of  an  enfranchised  people  in- 
telligent enough  to  know  what  it  wants.  We 
must  to  some  extent  pass  through  the  phase  of 
industrial  control  at  the  hands  of  individuals 
holding  disproportionate  wealth  and  |  ^er;  but 
this  can  last  only  a  little  time.  The  growth  of 
the  general  wealth  of  the  country  is  at  a  higher 
rate  than  the  aggregation  of  riches  in  the  hands  of 
multi-millionaires. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  man  of  moderate 
fortune  could  afford  to  l)c  without  any  training 
for  a  place  in  the  professional  or  business  world. 
But  the  fixed  fortune  now  yields  much  less  in- 
come ;  while  the  newer  demands  of  life  require 
a  larger  outgo.  Even  the  skilled  laborer  has 
steadily  shortening  hours  and  con.stantly  increasing 
wages.  The  future  belongs  clearly  to  the  work- 
ers, and  they  in  due  time  will  become  the  asso- 
ciated capitalists.     I  believe  it  will  come  to  be  a 


JEFFERSON'S  DOCTRINES  UNDER  NEW  TESTS 


239 


CHAP.  V. 


matter  of  comparative  ind'fference  whether  the 
political  society  that  we  call  the  State  gradually 
absorbs  the  industrial  organization,  or  whether  the 
two  shall  run  on  indefinitely  side  by  side.  In 
either  case  the  principles  of  democracy  must  have 
a  higher  potency  than  ever;  and  more  than  ever 
they  must  rest  upon  the  basis  of  a  universal  train- 
ing for  citizenship  and  for  honorable  member- 
ship in  the  local  and  the  general  community. 
"  One  good  government,"  Jefferson  observed,  "  is  j^dvance  of 
a  blessing  to  the  whole  world "  —  having  refer-  represent- 
ence  to  its  illuminating  example.  In  1823.  in  a  qg^f^^ 
letter  to  Albert  Gallatin,  he  declared,  with  a  »»««< 
wisdom  that  the  flight  of  years  only  serves  to 
illustrate:  "The  advantages  of  representative 
government,  exhibited  in  England  and  America, 
and  recently  in  other  countries,  will  procure  its 
establishment  everywhere  in  a  more  or  less  perfect 
form ;  and  this  will  insure  the  amelioration  of  the 
condition  of  the  world.  It  will  cost  years  of  blood 
and  be  well  worth  them." 

Let    me    conclude   with   one  more  quotation  A  final 
from  Thomas  Jefferson,  which  I  must  commend   "**'''"'' 
to  the  doubters  and  pessimists,  and  which  seems 
to  me  to  embody  as  much   political,  economic, 
and  ethical  wisdom,  applicable  to  present  condi- 


I 

I 


1; 


240 

CHAP.  V. 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

tions,  as  any  other  single  utterance  from  the  pen 
of  any  other  American  statesman.    What  I  am 
about  to  quote  was  written  by  Mr.  Jefferson  in 
1817  to  a  friend  in  France,  M.  de  Marbois:  — 
"  I  have  much  confidence  that  we  shall  proceed 
successfully  for  ages  to  come,  and  that,  contrary 
to  the  principle  of  Montesquieu,  it  will  be  seen 
that,  the  larger  the  extent  of  country  the  more 
firm  its  republican  structure,  if  founded,  not  on 
conquest,    but    in    principles    of    compact    and 
equality.     My  hope  of  its  duration  is  built  much 
on  the  enlargement  of  the  resources  of  life,  going 
hand  in  hand  with  the  enlargement  of  territory, 
and  the   belief  that   men   are   disposed  to   live 
honestly,  if  the  means  of  doing  so  are  open   to 
them." 


i-i 


fell 


i^  -^*' ' 


1! 


By  albert   SHAW,  LL.D. 

Editor  of  "  The  Review  of  Revirws  " 

Political  Problems  of 
American  Development 

77ie  Columbia  University  Press 


Cloth,  Si.jo  net 


Nine  Lectures  delivered  as  the  opening  course  of  the  Blumenthal  Founda- 
tion at  Columbia  University,  on  these  topics :  — 

1.  The  Nature  and  Meaning  of  our  Political  Life. 

IL  Problems  of  Population  and  Citizenship. 

IIL  Iii>migratioD  and  Race  Questions. 

IV.  Settltmenl  and  Use  of  National  Domain. 

V.  The  Citizen  and  His  Part  in  Politics. 

VL  Party  Machinery  and  Democratic  Expression. 

VIL  Control  of  Railways  antl  Trusts. 

VIIL  Problems  of  Tariff  and  Money. 

IX.  Problems  of  Foreign  Policy  and  Expansion. 


"The  last  word  of  the  title  is  the  key-word  of  the  entire  series  of  lectures. 
Each  one  of  the  chief  problems  of  a  political  nature  that  have  presented  them- 
selves for  solution  during  our  national  existence  is  considered  in  its  bearing 
on  the  general  course  of  our  national  evolution.  In  a  word,  the  book  as  a 
whole  is  a  study  of  national  development,  dealing  not  with  the  questions  of 
constitutional  law  that  vexed  the  minds  of  the  fathers,  but  with  the  practical 
difficulties  that  democracy  has  continuously  encountered  in  its  attempt  to  real- 
ire  the  national  ideals  in  the  American  environment.  Immigration  and  race 
questions,  problems  relating  to  our  public  lands,  party  machinery,  the  regula- 
tion of  the  railroads  and  the  great  industrial  trusts,  the  tariff,  the  currency, 
foreign  policy,  and  territorial  expansion  are  all  discussed  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  journalist  and  man  of  affairs." 


THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

PraLUHXXS.  64-66   TOtO.   AVBinri,  NEW  YORK 


'  H 


V 


By  JOHN   BATES   CLARK 

Professor  of  Political  Economy,  Columbia  University 

Essentials  of  Economic  Theory 

A*  AppUed  to  Modem  Problema  of  ladnstry  and  Public  Policy 

Cloth,  8vo,  $2.00  net 


9 


fi 


T'vi 


The  Distribution  of  Wealth 

A  Theory  of  Wacee,  Interett,  and  Proflta 

Cloth,  8vo,  445  pp.,  $3.00  net 

"  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  publication  of  Professor  Clark's  book  marks 
an  epoch  in  the  history  of  economic  thought  in  the  United  States.  Its  inspira- 
tions, its  illustrations,  even  its  independence  of  the  opinions  of  others,  are 
American ;  but  its  originality,  the  brilliancy  of  its  reasoning,  and  its  complete- 
ness deserve  and  will  surely  obtain  for  it  a  place  in  the  world  literature."  — 
Henry  U.  Seager,  in  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy. 

The  Control  of  Trusts 

An  Argument  in  Favor  ol  Curbing  the  Power  of  Monopoly  by  a  Hatnral  Method 
Published  by  the  Columbia  University  Press       Cloth,  60  cents  net 

"  Not  only  has  Professor  Clark  something  to  say,  but  he  says  it  with  such  force 
and  brevity  that  the  busiest  man  or  won'an  can  find  time  to  listen  to  him. 
Moreover,  he  understands  the  rare  art  of  writing  a  preface.  The  straightaway 
manner  in  which  he  outlines  the  scope  of  his  book  remmds  one  of  the  famous 
first  lines  in  Macaulay's  '  History  of  England,'  and  promises  much  which  this 
book  fulfils."  —  Boston  Advertiser. 


The  Problem  of  Monopoly 

A  Study  of  a  Orare  Danger  and  of  the  Hatural  Mode  of  ATerting  It 
Published  by  the  Columbia  University  Press  Cloth,  $1.00  net 

A  series  of  lectures  first  delivered  at  Cooper  Union,  New  York,  dealing  with : 
The  Growth  of  Corporations;  the  Sources  of  the  Corporations;  Powers  for 
Evil;  Great  Corporations  and  the  I^w;  Organized  Labor  and  Monopoly; 
Agriculture  and  Monopoly;  Governmental  Monopolies. 

"There  is  much  valuable  analysis  in  the  book,  and  its  reading  would  give  a 
better  understanding  of  the  trust  problem."  —  Jntemational  Socialist  Keview. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

FVBU8HIB8,  64-66  FITTH  AYKinJI.  KSW  TOBK 


1 


By  FRANKLIN  HENRY  GIDDINGS 

Professor  of  Sociology,  Columbia  University 

Democracy  and  Empire 

With  Studies  of  their  Psychological, 
Economic,  and  Moral  Foundations 

Cloth,  8vo,  $2.^0 

"  The  work  as  a  whole  is  the  most  profound  and  closely  reasoned  defence  of  territorial 
expansion  that  has  yet  appeared.  .  .  .  The  volume  is  one  of  rare  thoughtfulness 
and  insight.  It  is  a  calm,  penetrating  study  of  the  trend  of  civilization  and  of  our 
part  in  it,  as  seen  in  the  light  of  history  and  of  evolutionary  philosophy." 

—  Tht  Chicago  Triiune. 

"The  question  which  most  interests  both  Professor  Giddings  and  his  readers  is  the 
application  of  his  facts,  his  sociology,  and  his  prophecy,  to  the  future  of  the  American 
Empire,  ,  .  .  The  reader  will  rise  from  it  with  a  broader  charity  and  with  a  more 
intelligent  hope  for  the  welfare  of  his  country."  —  The  Itidtpendent. 

The  Principles  of  Sociology 

An  Analysis  of  Phenomena  of  Association  and  of  Social  Organization 

8vo,  Cloth,  $j.oo  net 

"  It  is  a  treatise  which  will  confirm  the  highest  expectations  of  those  who  have  expected 
much  from  this  alert  observer  and  virile  thinker.  Beyond  a  reasonable  doubt,  the 
volume  is  the  ablest  and  most  thoroughly  satisfactory  treatise  on  the  subject  in  the 
English  language,"      Littra  ry  lyorld. 

"  The  distinctive  merit  of  the  work  is  that  it  is  neither  economics  nor  history,  .  ,  ,  He 
has  found  a  new  field  and  devoted  his  energies  to  its  exploration,  .  .  .  The  chapters 
on  Social  Population  and  on  Social  Constitution  are  among  the  best  in  the  book.  It 
is  here  that  the  method  of  Professor  Giddings  shows  itself  to  the  best  adv.intage.  The 
problems  of  anthropology  and  ethnology  are  also  fully  and  ably  handled.  Of  the 
other  parts  I  like  best  of  all  the  discussion  of  tradition  and  of  social  choices;  on  these 
topics  he  shows  the  greatest  originality.  I  have  not  the  space  to  take  up  these  or 
other  doctrines  in  detail,  nor  would  such  work  be  of  much  value.  A  useful  book 
must  be  read  to  be  understood." —  Professor  Simon  N.  Patten,  in  Scitnce. 

The  Elements  of  Sociolos:y 

A  Text-Book  for  Colleges  and  Schools 

8vo,  Cloth,  $  I.  to  net 

"  It  is  thoroughly  intelligent,  independent,  suggestive,  and  manifests  an  unafTecied 
enthusiasm  for  social  prcnjress,  and  on  the  whole  a  just  and  sober  apprehension  of  the 
conditions  and  essential  features  of  such  progress. 

—  Professor  H.  Sidgwick,  in  The  Ecoiumic  Journal. 

"  Of  its  extreme  interest,  its  suggestiveness,  its  helpfulness  to  readers  to  whom  social 
questions  are  important,  but  who  have  not  time  or  inclination  for  special  study,  we 
can  bear  sincere  and  grateful  testimony."  —  Ntvi  York  Timtt. 

"  Professor  Giddings  impresses  the  reader  equally  by  his  independence  of  judgment  and 
by  his  thorough  mastery  of  every  subject  that  comes  into  his  vir<v," 

—  The  Churchman, 


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ELEMENTARY  IVORKS  ON  GENERAL  ECONOMICS 

THE    PRINCIPLES   OF    WEALTH    AND  WEL- 
FARE 

By  CHARLES  LEE  RAPER,  Ph.D. 

"  Professor  Raper  belongs  to  that  newer  school  of  economiste 
who  see  that  the  search  for  wealth  is  one  aspect  of  human  welfare 
and  that  the  creation  of  utilities  through  the  satisfaction  of  wants  is 
the  point  of  approach  for  the  entire  matter.  We  particularly  recom- 
mend this  book  because  of  this  fact."  —  fVorU  To-day. 

"  It  is  the  clearest  and  withal  the  most  practical  statement  of 
the  principles  of  wealth  and  welfare  that  has  come  under  our  notice." 

—  Baltimore  Sun. 

Suitable  for  use  in  Aigh  schools,  etc.  „     .  .  .„  „.» 

■^  Qoth    lamo    336  pages    fi.ionet 

OUTLINES  OF  ELEMENTARY  ECONOMICS 

By  HERBERT  J.  DAVENPORT. 

A  closely  knit  statement  of  elementary  theory  of  the  science  of 
economics,  studiously  theoretical  rather  than  descriptive.  Consider- 
able space  is  given  to  important  "Suggestive  Questions"  which 
stimulate  the  student's  interest  by  drawing  on  his  fund  of  observation 
and  experience,  and  on  his  power  to  generalize  roughly. 

Qoth    xiv  +  280  pages    80  cents  net 

ELEMENTARY   PRINCIPLES   OF   ECONOMICS 

By  Richard  T.  Ely,  University  of  Wisconsin,  and  George  Ray  Wicker, 

Dartmouth  College. 

This  work  combines  material  for  teaching  both  economic  history 
and  economic  theory,  each  being  made  to  supplement  the  other.  It 
is  clear,  concise,  concrete,  and  copiously  illustrated. 

Qoth,  half  leather    lamo    vii -H  388  pages    1 1.00  net 

OUTLINES  OF  ECONOMICS 

By  Richard  T.  Ely,  Professor  of  Political  Economy  and  Director  of  the 
School  of  Economics,  Political  Science,  and  History  in  the  University 
of  Wisconsin. 
Citizen's  Liirary    Qoth,  leather  back    xii  +  43ap*K«»    l>-2S  «>«» 


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